Excuse the poor pun in the title. Please also excuse my long, long absence. I’ve been so busy with starting university that I haven’t had time for blogging, let alone knitting. It is very cold outside at the moment so I wanted something to keep my neck warm while braving the weather. It turns out I love cowls. They’re so much easier than scarves because you don’t have to deal with wrapping them around your neck several times and you can just stuff them in your handbag while you’re indoors. Easy. They’re also easy to make and there are tonnes of amazing cowl patterns on the internet.
This first one is the Aspen Neck Cowl using Susan Andrew Collection Inca Gold Baby Alpaca which, by the way, is so incredibly soft! I actually wanted something in mustard yellow because I fall in love with every single knit item that I see in that colour. This is such a simple pattern but it looks so good. I was surprised that it’s not actually very warm considering it’s made of alpaca but it is a lot looser than I thought it would be (probably a bit too loose for this weather but I love the way it looks so it doesn’t really matter). I knit the cowl inside out so the majority of it was knit stitches because I can knit much faster than I can purl.
This next cowl is essentially almost the same thing, just rows of knits and purls, but this time with a much chunkier yarn. This is the Luxury Cowl/Hood and I used Wool-ease in Fisherman double-stranded on 8mm needles. It makes a super smooshy fabric that I love and it just makes me want to cuddle up with it. I think this might start a love affair with chunky knits.
That’s all for now. I do have some holiday knitting which isn’t exactly ready to be revealed yet. I’m having a little bit of trouble with the whole blocking process. Merry Christmas to everyone and happy holidays!