The most relaxing and cosy project I’ve ever made. It’s knit in simple garter stitch to create a cowl that feels incredibly warm and snuggly. So if you’re looking for the next TV-knitting project, this is perfect for you. In total this took me around 4.5 hours to make, however you could definitely finish it more quickly if you’re a fast knitter.
I wanted to make something to use up yarn I had bought quite some time ago – the yarn is called ‘Stripes & Fun’ and is an acrylic yarn from a local dollar store called TEDI; I used three skeins in total, each skein measuring 50 meters and weighing 100 grams. However, if you can’t find it where you live, any soft super bulky weight yarn will do fine. The one I used is in black and white and consists of one strand of each colour loosely twisted together, so it would also be easy to recreate by holding together one strand of bulky weight yarn in each colour.
I used 8mm size knitting needles – especially with the weight of the cowl I would strongly recommend using circular needles, even though it’s knit flat. You could easily go up to 9mm or even 10mm needles and do fewer rows that way, I would certainly have done that but 8mm were the largest needles I had on hand. Additionally, you’ll need a tapestry needle with a fairly large eye – I personally like the ones from KnitPro, their eye is made from a flexible plastic so you can easily thread any yarn through them. For seaming the cowl I also used sewing clips, you could also use sewing pins or clothing pegs.
Knitting up the cowl
Now onto the tutorial which couldn’t be any easier to recreate. First, cast on 20 stitches with a stretchy cast on, aka German Twist cast on (or a normal long tail cast on, if you do that make sure to not make it too tight).
Afterwards, the relaxing part starts. Simply knit in garter stitch, for the edge slip the last stitch of each row purlwise, this creates a neat looking V-Stitch edge..
Continue until your piece measures around 110cm (which can be blocked to between 115 and 120cm). For me this ended up being 198 rows
Once you are happy with the length, do a stretchy bind-off; meaning you’ll knit two stitches, and instead of lifting the first stitch over the second, you slip both stitches back onto the left needle and knit those two together as a knit stitch.
Once you finished the bind-off, cut the end and leave a tail that’s at least three times as long as the width (so the short edge) of the cowl for seaming.
Then weave in the ends from casting on and switching skeins, make sure not to weave in the one yet that we left longer for seaming. If you want to block your finished piece – which I always recommend, however, with this one it is optional – then pin it on your blocking board and go over it with a garment steamer and let it dry. You can certainly also wet block it, I am generally way too impatient for that. 😉
Seaming it together
Once this is done, twist the cowl once before clipping both ends together. Twisting one end before seaming makes the cowl lay more nicely once you wrap it around your neck twice. I recommend using sewing clips to clip the two ends together before seaming. Then simply seam the two sides together using whip stitch and afterwards weave in the rest of the end that you just used for the seam.
And that’s it – no more freezing in the winter, you can keep your neck and even part of your face all cosy and warm when going out into the cold.