I wanted to make a houndstooth check cowl, and this seemed like a good pattern, using mosaic knitting instead of stranded colorwork.

Color and Texture. I bought some Lana Grossa Peru Tweed in Eggplant to go with some cashmere yarn I’d bought at the Common Ground Fair. But when I saw the gold fleck in the Peru Tweed, I knew I had to try to find a gold-colored yarn in my stash. The Vanna’s Glamour in Bronze was a perfect match and is providing a contrast in texture as well. It’s a bolder choice, but should make a beautiful cowl.

Mosaic Knitting in the Round. Previously, the Shift cowl, which is knit flat, was my only experience with mosaic knitting. For this cowl, I used the magic loop method with my size 4 Chiaogoo needles, which have very flexible cords. I still had trouble, though, when the round called for slipping the first stitch. You couldn’t bring the yarn forward between the needles as you normally would when beginning work on either of the needles. That created some tension/confusion when arriving at the last stitch on each needle, making it look like two stitches instead of one. I realized during the second half of the pattern that I had to twist the needle to discover which was the true stitch. So there are some “awkward” stitches in the first half of the cowl.

Cast-On. I used the Chinese Waitress Cast-On in the soft Peru Tweed yarn. This caused the cast-on edge to flare out, for better or for worse. I used a regular bind-off, in pattern, in the Vanna’s Glamour yarn. Now that edge has less “give.” Blocking should help.