Knit a Cowl in an Array of Colors

I’m thinking hard about ways to use up more yarn in the next year, and I love the idea of projects that use a lot of different colors, like the Gradient Cowl from the Purl Bee.

This pretty cowl uses lightweight yarn in a range of five colors, and two strands are held together and changed independently, meaning sometimes you get solid colors and sometimes you get a mix. It’s also worked in simple Seed Stitch for lots of texture without a lot of work.

The effect is really pretty and it makes colors that you might not think to put together look really nice together. I’d love to do a project like this sometime (and I actually did something sort of like it in a little poncho I made for my daughter a long time ago).

What’s your favorite way to use up a lot of yarn? I’d love some more ideas!

[Photo via the Purl Bee.]

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Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

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