A Knitted Bandana Cowl

I made myself a Bandana Cowl, using a lovely knitting pattern from The Purl Bee.

First of all, I love The Purl Bee.  It's a fantastic blog run by the ladies of Purl Soho, which is a knitting store that will be first on my list of sights to see if I'm ever back in New York City.

Second of all, I love my new cowl.

The pattern calls for bulky yarn, but I chose to make mine with worsted weight yarn because I wanted it to be a light and airy knit that I could wear while I'm here in the Caribbean.  (On a side note, it was actually kind of chilly today as we sailed back toward Florida.  Not Colorado chilly, obviously, but chilly nonetheless.)

If you take a close look at my pictures, you can see little specks of light shining between the stitches, which is exactly what I was going for with the lighter weight yarn.

My yarn choice also made my cowl extra drapey in the front, so it's even better for the Caribbean because it doesn't cover my neck very much.

In case you haven't caught on by now, I made this cowl 100% for aesthetics and 0% for neck warming.

The actual knitting process was quite quick, and the short rows kept me entertained.  In fact, I enjoyed the short rows so much that I'd like to seek out another pattern involving short rows to knit for one of my next few projects.  Do you know of any good ones?

Anyway, I hope you're staying warm and toasty wherever you are in the world.

If you're not in a tropical climate like I am, perhaps The Purl Bee's Bandana Cowl knit with the proper bulky-weight yarn would be just what the doctor ordered.

Happy knitting!
xoxo
Laura

Three-Turn Cowl Knitting Pattern

Here in the Caribbean, it's definitely not knitting weather outside.  Lucky for me, though, it's always knitting weather inside ice rinks, no matter where in the world they're located!

With that in mind, I whipped up a chunky cowl for myself, and I'm loving wearing it at the rink.

Before I started knitting this cowl, I played around with various stitch designs in my notebook and finally settled on a pattern with three vertical knit stitches and one purl stitch in between them.

You can see the way I drew out the pattern in the picture below.  I used little Vs to represent the knit stitches and dashes to represent the purl stitches.

When I make up my own patterns, I almost always draw a diagram like this before I start knitting.  Do you ever make up your own patterns too?  If so, do you draw diagrams too, or do you just feel it out with your needles in your hands?

Anyway, I named this project after a basic skating move, the three-turn, because I made it to wear during rehearsals, warmup ice time, and general hanging out by the ice (which I do a lot). I picked that particular skating move because it ties in with the three vertical stitches in the stitch pattern.  Get it?

Here are the details about the Three-Turn Cowl.

Materials:
1.  One skein (81 yards) super bulky yarn (I used Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn in Dallas Grey)
2.  US Size 15 (10mm) circular needles with a 16" length
3.  Scissors
4.  Tapestry needle to weave in ends

Gage:
1 inch equals 2 stitches

Pattern:
Cast on 40 stitches and join in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches.

First Garter Stitch Border:
Round 1: knit
Round 2: purl
Round 3: knit
Round 4: purl

Body of Scarf:
Round 1: knit
Round 2: (knit 1, purl 1) repeat
Round 3: knit
Round 4: (purl 1, knit 1) repeat
Repeat rounds 1-4 until your cowl measures 7 inches long (including the first garter stitch border)

Second Garter Stitch Border:
Repeat rounds 1-4 of the first garter stitch border

Bind off knitwise.

Happy knitting!
xoxo
Laura

Infinity Scarf Knitting Pattern

My good friend Leilani's favorite color is yellow because it's the color of sunshine (and french fries). In honor of her birthday, which was on Wednesday, I made her a big, comfy sunshine-colored scarf to help keep her winter days warm and cheery.

Supplies Used:

• 165 yards of super bulky yarn in bright yellow (I used 2 skeins (81 yards each) of Lion Brand Hometown USA Super Bulky Yarn in Pittsburgh Yellow)
• 165 yards of bulky yarn in light yellow (I used 1 skein (175 yards) of Loops & Threads Charisma Baby medium weight yarn in Yellow)
• US Size 19 knitting needles

Pattern:
Throughout this whole pattern, hold the two colors of yarn together and knit with them as if they were one strand of yarn.

• Cast on 16 stitches
• Row 1: (knit 1, purl 1) repeat until end of row
• Row 2: (purl 1, knit 1) repeat until end of row
• Repeat these two rows until the scarf is 58 inches long
• Bind off
• Line up the cast on edge with the bound off edge and use mattress stitch to make a seam. The scarf should now be one big loop.
• Weave in ends

I think seed stitch (the alternating knit/purl technique used in this pattern) is perfect for big scarves like this for two reasons. First, it is reversible so it looks good no matter how it's piled on your neck. Second, all the little purl bumps add volume to the scarf, making it seem even bigger and cozier than it would otherwise.

Also, this is a very quick, easy knit because the needles are so big and the pattern is so simple. I would highly recommend this pattern to beginner knitters or to anyone who is looking for a nice break from their more difficult knitting projects. (Before this, I was working on this elephant with size 3 needles, so it was super fun for me to switch to the size 19s and fly through this scarf.)

I think Leilani really liked it!

Here she is modeling it, mid-laugh, at her party on Wednesday:

Unfortunately, I only had the camera on my phone with me at her party, as I'm sure you can tell. My new goal for myself is to work on remembering to bring my real camera along with me on a more regular basis.

Happy birthday, Leilani!

xoxo

Laura