Elliptic Cowl

My test for It's Stripes, Jim is drawing to a close. The test was actually for completing a single right-to-left striped sock, but five out of six testers like the pattern enough to make a pair (and the sixth implied that a pair will be made once she has completed another test but not before my deadline). This makes me happy :) The general opinion so far is that it is a fun knit - enough going on to not be boring and not difficult.

I have a second test running for a quick knit cowl in bulky yarn. I came up with the design after scanning the database for something to use up some araucania copihue yarn I had bought in 2011 and couldn't find what I had in mind. I wanted a cowl that was fitted to my neck and also covered my shoulders.

I wanted some texture so played around with spiralling ribs for the neck. Some research into determining the circumference of ellipses to work out the increases required to get the collar shape I wanted for my stitch and row gauge. Short rows with increases to build the ellipse shape either side after the neck, and then back to spiralling ribs with increases to keep the ellipse shape and get to  the required finished size.


I liked it - in fact I kept it on for the whole day as it was quite chilly here - but could see a couple of improvements that I could make. No problem, it used just under two skeins and I still had another four... so I made another one with the changes :)