A Simple Cowl for When You Need to Think

The beginning of a new year (or the end of the first month, since we’re almost there already!) is a great time to reflect on the past year and to think about things you might want for yourself in the year ahead. It’s great to have an easy knitting project on the needles for these times of deep thinking, and that’s just want the Brood Cowl was designed for.

>> While you are here, check out our post on 13 Valentine Mug Rugs to Sew For Gifts <<

Rebecca McKenzie designed this top down, circular knit cowl for those times when things are weighing on you and you just need a bit of comfort knitting and a place to rest.

It uses DK weight yarn and has a little bit of shaping to give it a sloped look. It uses three colors of yarn with regular striping so you can carry the unused yarn up the inside of the cowl as you go rather than cutting and weaving in ends.

By now you probably expect me to say that you can use more colors if you want, and you could also make this with worsted weight or another weight of yarn if you like, bearing in mind it will come out a different size (or you can easily adjust the size). You could also try making it holding two strands of yarn together if you have lots of sock yarn or lace weight to work through.

Speaking of sizes, there are two options available in the pattern. The first is 20 inches around and 26 inches long (that’s 50 centimeters around and 66 long for our metric system friends), while the larger is 24 inches/61 cm around and 30 inches/76 cm long.

The stitch pattern is simple knits and purls so it would be pretty easy to alter the size if you want.

Learn more about the pattern and grab your copy on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rebecca McKenzie]

Next Pattern:

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?