To hearten is to encourage. To give heart. It’s an especially beautiful kind of love, focused on bringing comfort and joy wherever they are most needed. It’s what the holiday season is all about. Heartfelt presents and wholesome home cooking. Thoughtful acts of charity and random acts of kindness. Often, it’s something we do for others, but it’s also a gift we can give ourselves. The rousing pep talk addressed to the mirror before you face the day. The hearty bowl of stew you sit down to after coming in from the cold. The quiet, blissful moments of making that you allow yourself, even when the list of holiday chores seems impossibly long.

The Hearten Cowl is a joyful project, full of colour, courage, and love. Designed specifically to be knit with a yarn advent calendar or cherished fingering-weight scraps from your stash, it features playful stripes and chevrons with a touch of easy lace. This is a big, generous hug of a cowl, big enough to wrap around twice, for extra warmth and luxury. It’s a project you can savor, knitting it slowly row by row, watching the colours shift and change.

SIZE
One size

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Approximately:
Circumference 127cm (50”)
Width 41cm (16”)

YARN
Meadow Yarn miniPightle 100% wool - superwash merino; 80m/87yds per 20g mini skein, 24 x 20g mini skeins

o r
Sample used approximately 10g (40m/44yds) of 24 colours of fingering weight yarn or a total of 960m/1056yds.

NEEDLES
3.5mm (US 4), 100cm (40”) long circular needles (or size to obtain gauge)

NOTIONS
Tapestry needle
1 Stitch Marker

GAUGE
24 sts/36 rows = 10cm (4”) in
stockinette stitch after blocking
Exact gauge is not critical but may affect the amount of yarn needed if different.

KNITVENT 2020
Find comfort and joy in a season of secret patterns and simple pleasures this Knitvent. Together we’ll slow down, take stock, and celebrate finding our own happiness wherever it is hiding.

To create a beautiful holiday season, the only ingredients we really need are an extra bit of comfort and a healthy dose of joy. If these seem hard to come by in an anxious and distracted world, we’ll just have to make them for ourselves. A tray of homemade cookies cooling on the counter. A handwritten card for a far away friend. A basket of pretty yarn scraps by your favourite chair, destined to become a gift for someone dear.

The heady whirl of parties, parades, and shopping malls will be back soon enough. This year, the smallest things will matter most. This Knitvent, our six mystery patterns will bring us back to basics. Let’s distil the delight of the holidays into its purest form. Little comforts. New traditions. The quiet joys of home and hearth and handknit presents.