The season of the cowl

Between crocheting bridal shawls, which I have been doing quite a bit of recently, I’m fully engaged in cowl designing and making.

There have been three cowls completed in the last few weeks – one crochet and two knit.  The crochet cowl is made with a cashmere and silk blend yarn and is the longer style that can be wound as short as you want to make it.  I adore the blues of this hand dyed yarn – the colour is called ‘Bright Skies’, so that’s also become the name of the cowl:

I’ve used the ripple stitch worked flat and then seamed it into a round and worked a simple double crochet edging to both sides, which I think gives it a nice neat finish:

The first of the knit cowls is the one I talked about making in my last post – the Versace cowl.  I’m really pleased with how this one came out – exactly how I’d envisaged it.  I’m not sure that I would want to knit with the metallic thread that I used again.  It was exactly what it should be as far as application is concerned and looks lovely, but my hands are clearly spoilt by the kind of lovely soft yarns I usually use, because they didn’t enjoy working with the unforgiving and slightly scratchy lurex thread!  Having said that, you certainly can’t feel the metallic thread when the cowl is worn, and that’s all that really matters:

It was nice to work with Rowan’s Creative Focus Worsted again, although I was also happy to get back to my favourite Malabrigo Worsted Merino for my next cowl – a mini me version of the Shaded English Rose Tweed:

This one is a bit shorter than the full sized one and certainly not as wide.  Being a little vertically challenged myself, I was curious to see what the design would look like a bit smaller – my bigger cowls drown me somewhat…  In true Goldilocks style, this one is perfect for my 5’2″ frame, so I will definitely be making more of these as an alternative style.  The other great thing about it is that it is so much quicker to knit and uses less yarn so I can offer it for sale at a much more affordable price, which I like.  Isn’t it cute?

I’ve just started another new cowl design this last weekend using a creamy coloured undyed baby alpaca.  I’ve also got another bridal wrap on the go – this time in gold – as well as a little cape I’m thinking of making with some lovely Rowan Kidsilk Haze Trio that I’ve just bought, and then there’s the little mohair striped curling cowl that I’ve got in mind – I won’t go on…  Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of those to post soon 🙂