Cowls are for Summer, Too

On my recent vacation I (finally) knit a Wingspan shawl, and while I haven’t worn it yet, it’s small enough and lightweight enough that I could wear it while it’s warm outside (particularly in southern air conditioning).

I’m not the only one who feels like cowls and shawls can and should be an all-year thing. The Into the Wind Cowlette from Safiyyah Talley is a great example of a cowl that is very much meant for summer knitting and wearing.

There’s the color, for starters. It’s worked in lace-weight yarn and is just a little triangular bit of knitting with some eyelets for extra breatheability. It’s joined into a cowl so it won’t slide off your shoulders, and the fringe adds a bit of fun, too.

Grab the pattern for $7 on Ravelry.

[Photo: Safiyyah Talley.]

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Check out these books dedicated to Knitted Cowl Patterns still looking for more cowl patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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I don’t know if it’s possible to look at the Snug Wrap from Sylvia Watts-Cherry and not smile. There’s so much fun stuff going on in it that if I had a bunch of sport weight yarn in my house I definitely would have cast this one on immediately after seeing it.

There’s stripes and circles of different sizes and colors, worked with intarsia. The wrap is worked sideways in both garter stitch and stockinette, so different sections also have different textures. Color blocking means you’ll use a lot of two main colors, and there are two more colors used for contrast throughout the piece.

As I mentioned, the project calls for sport weight yarn, and it’s already pretty big — 23.25 by 82 inches or 59 by 208 cm — so you probably wouldn’t want to use heavier yarn unless you just want to make it a super scarf. You could use even lighter yarn to make it more of a scarf than a shawl if you wanted.

The yarn used is a combination of Merino wool and recycled threads from La Bien Aimée’s yarn making process, so it’s a fun way to reduce waste while making something awesome.

The color motifs are depicted in charts in the pattern, but none of these are difficult so even if you’re new to chart reading you should be able to handle this pattern. The colors in the sample are so pretty but you can of course change it up with your favorites that will make you smile as you knit and wear this super fun pattern.

As usual, checking out the projects tab on Ravelry will show you some more fun color options. I love the idea of using jewel tones to give it a more wintry look, but the sky is the limit when it comes to color options.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sylvia Watts-Cherry]

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