A seamless cowl with gansey features: the beautiful, hard-wearing Channel Island cast-on, garter stitch edges like the welt of a Guernsey, and a variety of traditional stitch patterns. It is constructed like a neck-down or shoulder-up shoulder strap, with the central portion knitted between the garter stitch edge bands, joining them together. If it only had underarm gussets, it would be a gansey!

There are two versions: short and long. The long version can be worn loose, in which case it will hang down to somewhere below bust level, or it can be twisted and doubled for a cosy alternative to a scarf. The stitch patterns work equally well either way up. The short version is ⅔ as long and sits neatly (but not tightly) around the neck. 270m/295yds (less than one 100g ball) of Frangipani 5-ply Guernsey yarn is needed for the short cowl or 400m/437yds (less than two balls) for the long one.

For this cowl it is important that the ratio of garter stitch sts per cm (or inch), knitted in the round, to stocking stitch rows per cm (or inch), knitted to and fro, is close to 3:4. You should swatch before casting on and adjust the size of needles you use, if necessary, to achieve that ratio.