Monday, February 13, 2012

The Superbowl Cowl

I got it in my head that I wanted to make a cowl. A cowl is one continuous scarf loop, like the neck part of a turtleneck. I'm still working on my knitting skills so I figured a cowl would be a good way to figure out circular needles. I bought some yarn and then searched high and low for a pattern. There's a good reason why knitters find a pattern they like and then buy the yarn! I don't really understand the whole "gauge" concept so I took a stab in the dark and bought a pair of size 13 circular needles. I took another stab in the dark and came up with an arbitrary number of stitches, 130, and made what could be the longest cowl known to man. Seriously, I could wrap it around my neck twice with lots of room to spare! (Yes I'm pale, but not that pale - I was standing in front of a white wall.)
I was psyched about my new circular needles skillz but disappointed with the size of the cowl so I ripped the whole thing out. This is where the whole understanding gauge thing would come in handy - gauge is the way to figure out how many stitches you need for the size needles and yarn you are using. I decided that since I was using a bulky weight yarn that if I reduced my stitches by half than not only would my cowl be smaller in circumference but it would be taller too, a bonus for my long neck!

This ended up being such a mindless, easy project that I knit nearly the entire thing while watching the Patriots lose to the Giants during the Superbowl, thus "the Superbowl cowl." I'm a lot happier with my cowl now that it's a smaller size. If I had to do it again, I'd probably make it a little smaller but for my first go on the circular needles, I'm sticking with what I've done.
Pattern: 60 stitches, size 13 circular needles, Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn.

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