One of the potential problems with colorwork knitting, at least when it comes to stranded or Fair Isle styles of knitting, is that you don’t always want to have the back of the work on display. Other knitters will appreciate the beauty of perfectly aligned floats (and I actually once had a storebought sweater that included floats as a design element) but most people won’t, and they also have the potential to snag on things, say, if you’ve knit a stranded scarf with the back side exposed.
The Kenora Cowl pattern from Laura Chau eliminates that problem by having you knit a lining in a contrasting color that covers up your floats.
In all you need three colors of yarn for this project — two for the front side colorwork and one for the inside lining. The inside can be worked with a thinner yarn, and I love the idea of throwing in a mohair or cashmere yarn on the inside for extra warm fuzzies.
The pattern can be worked in either fingering or worsted weight yarn, and it begins with a provisional cast on to work the geometric checkerboard pattern on the outside of the cowl, then you release those stitches to work the lining. The pieces are joined with a modified three-needle bind off, so there’s no seaming involved.
The colorwork portion is only charted, but it’s very repetitive and easy to follow, so even if this is your first time reading a chart (or your first time doing stranded colorwork) this is a great project to try.
You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.
Looking for more fun colorwork cowls? I recently shared the Hawi Honey Cowl, which is another great one for learning colorwork knitting. Or use up all the random bits leftover from other projects on the Ellensburg Cowl.
[Photo: Laura Chau]
