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Cuckoo for Cowls

It seems cowls have been all the rage in the last couple of years and with any luck will remain a rage through this winter season.  I've finally jumped on the bandwagon and knit several of them this year so I certainly hope that's the case.

I made several of the Honey Comb Cowl; it can been seen here.  You've seen two versions of the West Desert Hood here and here.  There's been a couple of versions of the False Creek Cowl here.  But I've been busy knitting up a couple of other types of cowls recently.

A Flagel-designed cowl started out wanting to grow up to be a scarf, but there wasn't enough yarn to make it an appropriate length. (I so wanted it to be a scarf.)  A short scarf can rather easily turn into a cowl.  (This creation is another of my happy mistakes. I'm going to assume this process is the way many new knitting creations come about.)   The inspiration for this design came from a cowl I saw made up at Baad Anna's earlier this fall.  This is Candy wearing her new cowl, a one-of-a-kind Flagel.

The Flagel designed cowl
The stitch is a simple moss or seed stitch (k1, pl and the second row a p stitch is k and k is p).  I love this stitch because of the texture it creates, and the fact the scarf will remain flat with no curling.  To finish it I added a single crochet black outline around the outer edge (it isn't showing on the left side of the photo) and sewed on a couple of buttons that mimic the textured stitch of the cowl.  The buttons serve only as decorations, but they tie the entire design together.

A Flagel modified design
Two of these cowls were made using the same stitch pattern, k1, yo, p1, yo.  Click here and scroll down to see how this is done.  The pattern came with this chunky yarn.  So I made the first cowl up following the pattern explicitly. However, it is a bit too droopy from my POV so on the second, I cut back on the number of stitches initially cast on.  This makes the cowl more narrow and longer and allows for a second loop around the neck.  I like this design better and so did Jami.  It now lives with her.

Last False Creek Cowl with the perfect brown buttons
Finally, I made a third False Creek Cowl in browns and placed the buttons so it will hang in a "V" shape around the neck.  Seems as if I finally am over my inability to work with this pattern although the mauve yarn continues to wait its turn.  Nancy's the owner of this more than likely last False Creek.

So at least for this winter season it appears I have gone cuckoo for cowls.  Oh, and all these gifts have been given away so no surprises ruined here.
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