A simple cowl with blocks of colour tumbling down. Part of the Safe Haven ebook, this cowl co-ordinates with the hat and wristees. Look out for the surprise stripe panel on the opposite side from the blocks - it gives you extra options in knitting and wearing.

The colourwork is all easy stripes, no intarsia. There are some stitches to pick-up. It is worked flat and finished seamlessly or seamed, as you prefer.

This cowl makes a quick gift, perfect in someone’s favourite colours.

You only need a small amount of each of the contrast colours. This means you can use this pattern to finish-up contrast yarns from making some of the other gorgeous projects in the Safe Haven ebook.

Size
Fully customisable in length and circumference.
Suggest 20-30cm/8-12” tall.
Suggest 50-60cm/20”-24” around

Materials
Any good 4ply/fingering to sportweight yarn works well.
Shown in: Blue Sky Alpacas Sportweight & Melange, 100% baby alpaca, 100m/110yds per 50g skein. 2-3 x your main colour (A), depending on size. The smaller size described above will fit out of 2 skeins, the largest will need 3.
Allow 10-15m/11-17yds each of contrast colours, (B, C & D).
3.5mm/US 3 & 3.75mm/US 5 needles
For non-seamed versions, allow about 1m of scrap yarn for holding live stitches, or a spare cable for interchangeables.

Eggplant sample shown used: 70g/140m/155yds of Egg Plant 512 (A), and 10m/11yds each of Relish 808 (B), Pesto 802 (C) & Dijon 807 (D).
One ball each of the three contrast colours is more than enough contrast yarn for a set comprising this cowl plus Leeward hat and Port & Starboard wristees. Just allow enough of main colour (A) for the pieces you want to make.

Tension
Not critical. Sampled at 22 sts and 30 rows to 10cm/4” square over Stocking Stitch (Stockinette) using 3.75mm/US 5 needles or size required to get gauge.

Technical editing: Akshata Dhareshwar
Sample knitting & testing: Mel & Denise
Photography: Louise Zass-Bangham