I finally got around to casting on for a turtleneck cowl for myself. The rest of my family (except the baby) each have their own, love them, and now it was my turn. I wanted to be able to use it this winter (not that this winter is ending anytime soon).
Rather than shopping for wool to use for this project, I wanted to use yarn I already had in my stash. I had some gorgeous Shadyside Farm Studio Grasshopper Green Krayonbox worsted weight I had found one year ago at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival (I had a chance to go, sans kids, last year - before the birth of my third. It was heaven!) I figured that the ribbing would be flexible enough to cast on a few more repeats than what I do when using bulky yarn - and obviate the need for swatching my gauge.
So, as I was knitting (what was going to be a copy of the turtleneck cowls that I had knit my family), I started thinking of ways to improve the design and make it different - but not too different. What I like about the cowls is their versatility. You can wear them folded over for that "turtleneck sweater" look. You can stretch them out to cover a cold nose. You can fold it over and wear as either a headband or a hat without a top.
I thought to myself... what if? What if I introduce eyelets to one of the edges? It would be not only an interesting stand-alone design element (if desired), but also allow for a ribbon or I-cord to be laced through. Pull on the I-cord to cinch one side and, voila, the cowl turns into a hat! And what if I add small pom pons to the ends of my I-cord, to make it look cool and funky?
Part of me did NOT want to take the chance of making this with my gorgeous yarn. Part of me wanted to stick with what I know. But then I reminded myself: "How am I going to learn new things unless I try them out?" (Plus, since this is such a fast knit, if it didn't work out, I could always frog it and reuse the yarn for something else)
Thank heavens I listened to that little voice. I'm SOOO happy with how the cowl/hat turned out.
For the I-cord, I asked my husband (the artist) for a recommendation of which yarn to use. He looked through my stash and ended up picking out some leftover Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica I had from the Seaweed Shalom sweater I knit. The funny thing with his choice is that, in this varigated color yarn, there are bits of green that exactly match the grasshopper green of the cowl!
Lessons Learned from this project
Of course there are a few lessons learned from the project... things I would do differently next time:
- I cast on an uneven number of repeats, so when I lace the I-cord, the tails come out on the same side (look closely and you'll see one tail of my cord ends on the front, one on the back.
- I would have knit it a bit shorter... I feel like it is maybe three to four rows too long.
So what do you think? Do you like the design and functionality of this?
