Winter came to the southern part of Sweden today! After months of gails and rain we finally had lots of lovely snow! I brought my Guapa cowl out of the cupboard - it was a joy to wrap into it. Brought to you for free for a while…. please heart it if you like it:))

If you enjoy the fronts patterning of my sweaterhttps://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/petals-and-pearls-sweater here is the possibility to try out this gorgeous lace:)

I love cowls! Living in a part of Sweden where the landscape is flat enough to allow freezing cold and heavy winds to sweep in during the months of winter, I need to cover up! I want my cowls to be tight-fitting and protecting!
This is the reason why I made both sizes of this lovely cowl rather short. As they are made side to side they can be made as long as you want. There are no limits, except for your taste and needs (and maybe your stock of yarn…..)

I made the cowls up in 2 different sizes/gauges:

The white, bulky cowl measures 36cm/14” (width) and 56cm/22” (length). It is made using a bulky/12ply yarn: 3 skeins of Viking Garns Eco alpaca. Each skein comes in 100gr/3.53oz and 125m/137yards.
Gauge 20sts in pattern = 10cm/4”. Needles 5mm/US8

The blue cowl measures 22.5cm/9” (width) and 90cm/35.5” (length) and is long enough to be plied twice around the neck. It is made using Lotus Yarns (Trendsetters) Cashmere, a fingering weight yarn. I used 1 skein of 55gr/2oz and 365m/400 yards. Gauge 36 sts in pattern = 10cm/4”. Needles 3mm/US2.5.

The patterns used are simple and repetetive cable and lace-patterns. Together they make a gorgeous impact - with lots of surface interest, texture and charm.

Knitting skills If you are new to lace and cables this may be a good projet to start with. There are no difficult stitches in the pattern, and all patterns are repeatet and fairly easy to memorize.
Abbreviations used are: k, p, yo, ssk, k2tog, sl1k2togpsso, m1p
Teqniques used are working cables with a cable needle.
You could start the cowl from a traditional or a provisional cast on.

The pattern All patterns for lace and cables come with clear and full charts, as well asrow by row (written) instructionsl