I am incredibly picky about scarves. Color, texture, weight, wrap-a-bility, poofiness-factor... all of it matters very much. And although I have knit a few for myself, this is sadly the first scarf or cowl I have made that I think has any real life in it (meaning I'll wear it for more than a week or before loosing interest or passing it on).
I used almost two skeins of 100% wool from Michael's. Brand shown above. And size 7 (4.5 mm) 29inch circular needles. I cast on 74 stitches with two strands of the same color yarn (I just used one strand from each of the skeins). I am not sure if using two strands made it go faster, feel thicker or look better, but that's what I decided to go with and I am happy I did.
Then I joined the ends and started knitting. I only know how to do the knit stitch, or the garter stitch, but when knitted in the round it looks like what I (a knitting novice) consider "normal" stitches on one side and fantastic little "V" shapes on the other.
I like my cowls to be "tall" and come up high on my neck so I knitted 59 rows. I didn't count in the process, just worked on it until it felt right. (I was able to slip it around my neck as I was working to see how big it was getting.) Once I was happy with it, I cast off that last row.
I am currently working on the exact same pattern in a pretty "plum" color for a girlfriend of mine. Then my mom has requested a tan one. And if I have not officially given up on knitting after that, I am going to make one more - a striped one with that lime and tan yarn from the second photo. Michael's has all their yarn on sale this week and I figured it was a great opportunity to stock up...
If you are familiar with circular knitting, this "pattern" is probably much too easy, but if you are not, I have linked to youtube.com videos throughout this post. My grandma taught me how to knit (at Thanksgiving!) when I was nine, but these are some of the videos I watched to learn how to knit in the round. Hope they help!
