Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Review – Cowlgirls!

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Whether its cowls, gaiters, snoods, bandannas, collars, necklaces or scarves, Cathy Carron’s Cowlgirls brings you the variations that you love.

Knit them back and forth. Knit them in the round (and a chart showing how to go from one to the other), this book revels in accessories to keep your neck warm and snuggly in stripes, laces, braids and cables, stitch patterns.

Forget tired scarves and bulky turtlenecks—funky, chunky, hip and happening cowls are where it’s at! Following up her hit book Hattitude, author and designer Cathy Carron weaves a fashion statement that puts in-the-know women head and shoulders above the rest. Among the more than 40 patterns provided here are a cozy neck wrap featuring a built-in iPod holder, a lacy drawstring hood, and a woven necklace sparkling with Swarovski crystals.

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Comments

  3. Just completing “Hidden Treasure”. Looks great only problem is there are errors, this is the 1st cowl I’m making, hope there aren’t errors throughout the book.
    You don’t k2 p2 on rows 2 & 4 and bind off on
    row 3. Things start to go wrong when you get to the buttonhole flap as this is the one complicated row in the whole project.
    Just read it through and do what makes sense to you and not what it says!

Have you read?

Practice Colorwork on a Cute Knit Bunny

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]