Re-purposing yarn from a frogged project that has been hibernating for a year or so….

• Holding 2 strands together.
• The biggest needles I have are the 10 mm / US 15, so that’s what it’s going to be! I hope I can knit a bit loosely :)

Worked front, then wet blocked it - but it won’t stretch to more than 18” along the long side, 13” along the short sides. Trying again with more sts.

• Front & back: CO 50 sts.

• For collar, I mixed the instructions of this pattern with the ones I found in this version of the cowl; instead of using rope, I cut up an old t-shirt, made a 4-strand round braid, and covered that with duct tape before I crocheted around it. Collar rings are about 80 cm /31.5 inches around. I considered using the wrapping method from the other pattern as well, but wrapping around 3 things - 2x collar base + needles for "picked up" sts - but decided against it, as it became quite fiddly!

• Picked up a st for the cowl in every 2nd bump on the collar = 65 sts. Increased to 75 on the first k rnd.

• As my collar is quite a bit smaller than the one in the pattern, I did more rounds of herringbone st and increased a couple of times in order to make the cowl go over the shoulders.

• Inc’d 10 sts on rnd 10 (kfb every 7th and then every 8th st throughout = 85 sts), worked one rnd straight.

• Inc’d 10 sts on rnd 12 (kfb every 8th and then every 9th st throughout = 95 sts), worked 6 rnds straight, then BO loosely.

• Sewed on the front & back in the back of the BO st, so that the BO edge shows nicely.

• Added a button at the tip of the front/back and a crocheted loop on the other, so the front & back can be buttoned together instead of having to hunt down a pin for it.

I LOVE it! It looks amazing I think, it fits perfectly, and it’s toasty warm. Now I only need some cold weather, please…

Additional notes:

• I knit EXTREMELY loosely for the herringbone stitch. It really wanted to become tight, but if I’d knitted it normally I suspect I should have used needles that were about 20 mm. Working very loosely on 10 mm needles worked fine for me.

• I used 1 1/2 old t-shirts for the collar rings, cut them up in strips of about 8 cm width, then made a round 4-strand braid which I covered in duct tape.

• Crocheting around the collar rings seemed fiddly at first, but I quickly got the hang of it. One thing to note is that when working the second one while attaching it to the first one, you should take care to make the “bumps” as far into the center as possible. Mine were kind of on the outside edge, which made the following knit fabric flare a little.

• Picking up sts from the covered collar rings was done with a crochet hook, then placed on the needle. It was easier that way than trying to work the needle though the bumps.

• While working the first many rounds of the cowl, I was happy to have a cable longer than the circumference - I could pull out the right needle so it was “free” to get around the bend that was a bit too narrow to make knitting normally comfortable.

Those two photos of Jennifer Lawrence - I pilfed them off the internet. No breaking of copyright intended, just using this as a fan.