Right after I finished knitting my Montrose Shawl, I started imagining ways to take advantage of all the things I loved best about it—stripes, plush garter stitch, more stripes, soft brioche, and did I mention stripes? —and make it a lighter, easy to wear little sister. Enter the Montrose cowl.

Unlike her big sis, little cowl Montrose works up in superwash fingering- or sport-weight yarn. This makes the cowl version much more drapey than the original and makes it ideal for warmer-weather-wear. Add the effortless, “I just threw this on” energy of a bandana cowl and the stripes-on-stripes fun that Montrose is known for, and you’ll have a winner on your hands.

Don’t worry, I kept all the squishy, colorful fun of the shawl version. Speaking of color, for this sample I paired the bright, pink, red, and orange tones of Spincycle’s Dyed in the Wool in “Hotdish” with the chilly, cold-olive of Baby Cat Yarn’s fingering-weight “True Grime Enthusiast”. A retina-searing bright with a nearly neutral? Yes please!

Your options are limitless. Pair speckle neons with tonal pastels. Pick solids from two sides of the color wheel. Rock a low contrast grunge palette. Black and white could be quite striking. Stripe it how you like it!

Yarn
Spincycle Yarns Dyed in the Wool 200 yards (163 meters) / approx. 1.75 oz (50 grams); sport weight, Superwash American wool in “Hotdish”

Baby Cat Yarns Fingering 100 400 yards (366 meters) / 3.5 oz (100 grams); fingering weight, Superwash Merino wool in “True Grime Enthusiast”

Color A: 400 yards / 366 meters
Color B: 380 yards / 347 meters

The Montrose cowl was designed for a fingering- or sport-weight superwash wool. Using a wool blended with fibers like silk, cotton, or viscose will result in a softer, drapier cowl that might have less stitch definition. You can also choose a non-superwash wool, but the overall effect will be loftier and less drapey.

Needles
US 5 / 3.75 mm 36” / 90 cm or longer circular needle.

Notions
Two stitch markers, tapestry needle, locking stitch markers or seaming pins (optional)

Gauge
22 sts x 44 rows = 4” / 10 cm in garter stripe stitch pattern, after blocking.
21 sts x 48 rows / 24 brioche rows = 4” / 10cm in two-color brioche, after blocking

Finished measurements
31” / 79 cm circumference
13.5” / 35.5 cm back height
33” / 84 cm center depth

Many thanks to my tech editor rhyFlowerKnits and amazing testers juuliez, tguyton, harrietandalice, Cara (@aerialcataloger), Fran (@Fran_Heinzel) and Tanya (@Knitty_Chaos).