The DFTBA Cowl is a stranded and textured cowl, knitted in the round, created as a 2017 perk for the Project for Awesome (P4A) 2017 charity fundraiser. This year’s charities include Save the Children.

There are two variations: one with a central panel featuring the DFTBA initialism, and the other that spells out Don’t Forget to Be Awesome. As I was developing this pattern, I asked my cousin Maxwell whether to use DFTBA or to spell out Don’t forget to be awesome. Max’s choice was the latter, but the former is easier to knit.
The textured and purl rounds help create a fabric structure that is less prone to roll up on itself, better displaying the center DFTBA panel.

The yarns I used are from my stash; my aim was to create a pattern that could be worked in any fingering weight yarns of sufficient quantity. I did not need a full skein of either contrast color, nor did I need full two full skeins of the main color. The skeins I worked with to build the prototypes were just over 400 yards, and the first MC skein was finished shortly after the third and final stranded or color work band, leaving two bands to complete in the second skein. While I considered using one contrast color in conjunction with a series of main colors in each band, I didn’t … but that doesn’t mean you can’t.