I’m so happy to finally be able to talk about this new design. Introducing Vittorio Cowl, designed for Shall We Knit? yarn store advent calendar and knit with 24 of Koigu’s mini skeins. It comes in two sizes and uses up all the yarn. Join in the advent calendar fun with this Missoni-inspired cowl, named for Vittorio Missoni who turned the fashion brand into a global powerhouse.
Note: This cowl was designed using Koigu ‘Minis’ which are labeled at 11 yds (10 m) each. On average, these skeinettes are longer than labeled and the cowl was designed to use up as much yarn as possible. Therefore, the overall yardage used is more than the equivalent of 24 skeinettes of the Koigu ‘Minis.’ If you are substituting yarn, please use the listed yardage rather than calculating from Koigu ‘Minis.’ You will use up almost every bit of yarn for this project, I finished with about 5 yards left (made up of bits of different colours).
In the photo showing the three cowls on the fence, the cowl on the left was knit using the Minis randomly, the one on the right was knit after having organized the Minis in a gradient. The cowl in the middle is the smaller size, knit with the Minis in random order.
This pattern was inspired by the knotwork found in ruins of an abbey in The Burren. These unique three-part cables feature an arm running up the centre. To me, in the narrow panel on the right, these look like “beads” running up a chain.
Patterns in Northern Landscapes, part three are available individually or as part of collection. During the pre-order period, the ebook is available at a special, discounted price of $24.95. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the rest of the patterns will be published. Once all the patterns have been released individually, the eBook version of the patterns will be uploaded (tentatively release date – March 2022). At that time the price of the eBook rises to $35.95 (full retail price of the individual patterns is approximately $90).
The Northern Landscapes collection, part one is available here and Northern Landscapes collection, part two is available here.
I’m so please to announce that Foxy Stripes Cowl is now available!
In Fall 2019 I took a class with Bristol Ivy on “Knitting Outside the Box” and my mind was blown! She took us through a number of exercises to help our creative process and one of these was an exercise using Mad Libs. We each got three words and we were to use these to come up with a knitting concept.
I got ‘stripes,’ ‘cowl’ and ‘goofy’ and this cowl design was the result. Thanks Bristol! The yarn is the wonderful Blue Sky Fibers Woodstock Worsted.
Note: I used all but a few yards of the 3 skeins of Woolstok for my cowl. You may wish to purchase extra if you are using Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok Worsted to ensure you have enough to finish the cowl.
When I first started designing I spent a lot of time paging through Japanese stitch dictionaries (and still do!) and found the main pattern used in this cowl. It reminded me of an Egyptian cartouche and I visualized it in a deeper vibrant red. That design, Cartouche Shawl, was published in Knitty, Winter 2011. I’ve since used these stitch patterns in the Cartouche Slouchy Beret and the Cartouche Stole; however, I still wasn’t done with this design and knew that I wanted to do a cowl and fingerless gloves to complete the set.
And here is the result, the penultimate piece in the Cartouche series – the Cartouche Cowl.
Fossetta means “dimple” in Italian and this stitch pattern really reminds me of dimples in fabric. It may be late for winter in some parts of the world, but really, can one with ever go wrong with a cozy cowl or hat?
The red-brown cowl is knit with Verdant Gryphon’s beautiful Mondegreen worsted yarn, a divine concoction of Blue Faced Leicester, Silk and Camel. (A mondegreen is a misheard phrase, especially a song lyric and this colourway is “I Like Smoking Ice Cream”) Mondegreen is a seasonal yarn for Verdant Gryphon – carried only in the fall and winter – and they have good stock levels at the moment. Once you knit with this yarn, you’ll want more of it so this is the time to stock up. The cowl uses two skeins and the hat one.
The blue set is knit with Lang Yarns’ Yak, another luscious yarn made up of 50% merino and 50% yak. Seriously cuddly stuff (and if you want mittens to go with it, I recommend this pattern knit in this yarn).
My Grandfather passed away earlier this week after a long fight with cancer. I created the Mindfulness Cowl as a meditative process as I remembered time spent with him over my life.
During a time of remembrance, I chose to knit this lace cowl in the Lotus lace pattern in Firefly, a yarn that has a subtle sheen. The meaning of a red lotus is love, compassion, and all the activities of the heart.
