The Story of a Cowl

Once upon a time, I saw a cowl from Purl Soho. It combined 3 colors of a worsted weight yarn in three different stitch patterns. I really wanted to make this pattern, and spend several months looking for just the right yarn to make it.

On vacation in Pacific Grove, I found Quince Chickadee and really loved the colors and texture of it. Although Chickadee is a sport weight yarn, I figured I'd give it a try and the cowl would just be a little smaller. I selected Egret (white), Bird's Egg (blue), and Nasturtium (orange).

Then I read the pattern...the stitch patterns involve knitting stitches from the row below, which I have not done before. And taking a closer look at the stitch patterns, I didn't really like them. So what could I do? Find three slip stitch patterns that work with each other and with one, two, and three yarns.

Actually, it wasn't that difficult. The first is the Simple Grill Stitch. Usually, this is in two colors, but I decided that this would be the one I would use for the single color because it has a lot of texture. It is worked over a repeat of 3 stitches plus 3. Every third stitch is slipped and the wrong side is purled.

Using Egret, I cast on 51 stitches and started. Chickadee works up very soft and shows off the stitch definition beautifully. I used one full skein of yarn for the first section. I was hoping it would be 20" but it is about 18" long by 8". Things I would do differently: I would work through a row 2 instead of row 4, but it's not tragic.

The second section is a two-color slip stitch pattern that uses a repeat of 4 stitches plus 3. It is very similar to the grill stitch, but is knit stitch only and the slipped stitch is every 4th stitch (which also works on 51 stitches). So the second section is worked with Egret and Bird's Egg. This is when I discovered that the first section curls, but the second section lies nice and flat! I worked this section for 18".

The third section is a three-color slip stitch pattern called "Triple L Tweed." I found it on the Purl Soho site where it is used for linen dishtowels. As you slip stitches in the three colors, each color makes a little "L" shape. This stitch pattern is worked over a repeat of 3 stitches plus 1, so I'm incorporating the extra two stitches as selvedge stitches, one on each side. Working with three colors is slowing me down a little bit, but every row is knit and the wrong side is worked the same as the right side (just slipping the stitches to the front instead of the back).