"Let's!" "Get!" "Crafty!"
Back in the day I had grand plans for my own craft channel TV show. Today, I present to you, episode one. (Just kidding. Though six points if you remembered without clicking that link what I'm talking about.)
BUT! I did film, edit, voice-over, produce and upload a short video (you can click below to enlarge) that shows how to knit a striped cowl from start to finish. It's going to take you more than 10 minutes to knit but only 10.5 minutes to watch (plus, probably some start, stop, rewind, wonder what the hell I am trying to demonstrate time).
striped knit cowl tutorial from elise blaha on Vimeo.
I have shared my go-to cowl tutorial before but this one is a bit different because it's smaller (tighter to the neck) and uses two colors which makes it look much more impressive than it is. The secret to a two-color cowl is keeping both colors attached the whole way through (which I demonstrate in the video). The video also covers how to long tail cast on, how to knit both the English and Continental styles, how to cast off, how to weave in your tails and what I do when I am not sure why something looks odd (spoiler alert - push through!).
I love a small cowl so this finished project is only about 12 inches wide and 15 inches tall when laid flat. (Yours could be bigger if you cast on more stitches and kept going for more rows.) I used US size 7 (4.5mm) circular needles that were 16 inches long and two different skeins of Patons Classic Wool Roving.
If you know what you're doing and don't want to watch a video, pattern instructions are below.
Long-tail cast on 64 stitches with starting color. Join the round, taking care to make sure there are no twists in your yarn. Knit all the way around with the second color. Switch back to the first color. Continue this alternating pattern for 54 rows total. Cast off with the same color you started with. Weave in ends.
TA-DA! Pull a gray sweater out of the hamper to match, pretend it's not 80 degrees in November and wear with pride!
