Monday, January 6, 2014

Tapestry Cowl: Free Pattern!

Did I just say free pattern?? Why, yes I did! 'Pattern' is, however, a bit loosely used in this sense, because this cowl is so easy it hardly requires a pattern. So, maybe I should say: "Free Method". But....if people are talking about this it could sound a little odd:

"Did you see Carolyn's sweet Free Method she just posted?"
"...A what? A Free Meth Head?!"
"Yeah! For making a knitted cowl!!"
"She enslaves meth heads to make cowls??"

I'll just stick with 'free pattern', I guess. But consider yourselves warned, it really is not much of a strict "follow this and you will have exact results" pattern. More like notes I felt like sharing with you. Yeah! Notes. That sounds good.
 I made this cowl for my mother in law for Christmas. She wears a lot of neutral colored outfits, so I wanted to make her something she could wear with anything! The yarn I chose did most of the work in that department, so I had to stitch up a cowl that really showed off the colors without getting too distracting. So a simple knit and purl cowl was born!!
 The texture it created was interesting and subtle; perfect for such a multi-hued yarn!! Since for some reason I have a ton of variegated wools, I am all about patterns that create nice texture and really show off the yarn.


 So versatile!! I was quite tempted to keep this cowl for myself. Good thing I have a lot of this yarn left! I can probably whip out four more of these for me.

Dat drama!
The cool thing about this pattern or method is the level of customizability there is available. I used about 250 yards of worsted weight wool and size 6 circular needles for my cowl. You can use and size yarn you desire!! Just be sure to adjust your needle size and (possibly) your stitch count to suit your needs. Nothing else really has to be changed! I would love to see this worked up in oober bulky yarn. So pluffy and cozy!!
 
Tapestry Cowl Pattern
By Last in Line

Materials:200-300 yds yarn of your choice
Circular needles in a size appropriate for your selected yarn
Scissors
Stitch marker for marking the beginning of the round
Yarn needle for weaving ends

Stitches Used:K: knit
P: purl
CO: cast on
BO: Bind off

(So far so good right? If you can knit and purl, you are pretty much set.)

Cast on 160 sts for worsted weight (Remember, you can adjust your stitch count to accommodate the size of yarn you use. In fact, you don't even need to count!)
Join for knitting in the round and begin:

Round 1-6: knit
Round 7: purl
Round 8-9: knit
Round 10: purl
Round 11-18: knit
Round 19-20: purl
Round 21-25: knit

I repeated these 25 rows twice to make this cowl. I believe I even added a few rows at the end to get the height I wanted. Really, the pattern is all about tossing random purl rows in between groups of knit rows to get a little texture. Not much of a pattern, but hey, I thought someone else might find it useful.
Enjoy your cowl!! Be sure to comment me with a link if you do make one inspired by mine!! I'd love to see what you come up with.

Happy Monday, darlings!! Hope you all have fantastic weeks ahead of you!!
Lots of love,
Carolyn


1 comment:

  1. Don't lie-- you totes enslave meth heads xD
    And I loooove that yarn!

    ReplyDelete