This cowl was born from my love of reversible cowls and scarves, and textural stitch patterns that add interest, but aren’t overly complicated or too time consuming. I think it’d be perfect for a knitter who wants to try out circular knitting for the first time.

This pattern booklet has instructions for making the cowl with two different yarn weights, and resulting in three different finished dimensions.

My original cowl, made with Malabrigo’s Worsted merino yarn, was satisfyingly quick to knit and I found the stitch pattern was one I could happily knit while watching television. I then had a fancy for a larger, natural coloured cowl in a finer gauge, so made another version with undyed baby alpaca in a DK weight. This suits the stitch pattern perfectly, with its fine halo that adds a soft focus effect, although it did take quite a bit longer to knit! This then made me wonder what a larger cowl in the Worsted yarn would look like, hence cowl number three, worked in 3 skiens of the gorgeous Frank Ochre colourway - it’s a monster!

You can, of course, choose to make any of these cowls in whatever yarn you like, of the same weights. Do bear in mind though that the nature and colour of the yarn you choose will impact the look of the final piece. It is fun to experiment though!

Everyone’s knitting tension is different and gauge isn’t essential for a cowl, but my finished original Worsted weight cowl had the following dimensions: circumference of 54 inches / 137cm when measured flat, and a width of 10 inches / 25cm. The 3 skein Worsted weight had a circumference of 82” / 208cm and was 11” / 28cm wide. For the DK weight option, the finished circumference was 60 inches / 152cm when measured flat, and a width of 10 inches / 25cm. For all options, please note that because of the springy nature of the stitch pattern, the ‘wearable’ circumference is a little longer.

Materials: The worsted options call for 2 or 3 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted (my versions use colour MM601 ‘Simple Taupe’ and MM035 ‘Frank Ochre’): http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/merino-worsted-30#.W5gV_kZKiUk and the DK option needs 3 x 100g skeins of yarn in a DK weight. Gauge of 22 stitches to 4 inches. My version shown here in cream is an unbranded, undyed baby alpaca yarn.

Equipment: Circular Knit Needles 5.5mm/US9 and 6mm/US10 for the Worsted options (one straight needle for the larger size is fine)
Circular Knit Needles 4mm/US6 and 4.5/US7 for the DK option (one straight needle for the larger size is fine)
Stitch marker
Wool needle

What you need to know: long tail cast on, how to work in the round and how to knit and purl