Monday 28 January 2013

The black cowl

Some weeks ago I got a request from a friend for a special piece of handwork: he asked me for a cowl.


This was the first time I made a cowl for men, but it was pretty easy to design: I already had a photo as an example.

The tricky parts were choosing the right yarn and buttons. The given example was knit in a super bulky yarn, which as much as I searched couldn't find in black color. So I chose a usual Aran weight yarn with a mix of wool and acrylic. And held four strands at a time. I have done with double strands before, but this is the first time I go for more than that. And the funny thing is, I didn't even use 4 skeins, just three.


The trick is, for each skein I used the outside strand and the inside strand(end of skein), which I dug out of the ball. For the third ball, for which I had to use four strands, I used the outside and inside strand and started unwinding the skein into a new ball, keeping the two starting ends always visible/accessible. When I reached the end of the skein, I just had a strand folded in two. I cut it in the middle and here they were, my other 2 strands! ^^

The overall structure of the cowl was rather simple, as well as the stitch: a simple seed stitch. It's very thick and warm, just perfect for cold winter days!



The other thing I worried about were the buttons, since I needed big metallic ones that shouldn't look girly. I was lucky enough to find suitable ones, but those came with a rather high price - and not made out of metal. :\


In the end, I am very pleased with the result, and so is apparently also the recipient: the cowl has reached Austria for some time now. :)






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