The idea for this cowl came from yarn dyeing experiments on our Merino Silk DK base. We were creating varied blues, greens, and purples, and the shimmer of the silk made these colors glow -- just like the northern lights!

The Shifting Northern Lights Cowl uses short rows within the color sections to provide a sense of movement and interest, interspersed with resting rows of straight garter stitch. The cowl is knit flat, with two edges that will later be joined (after blocking). The edges that will be visible have an I-cord edge that is knit as you go (by slipping 3 stitches at the end of a row). The I-cord and short rows require some attention, but the rest should be a meditative, easy knit.

Materials

• Needles: Size 4.0mm (US size 6) circular needle (with 24” cord)
• Tapestry needle to sew together two edges. This is also helpful to weave in ends.
• You may want to have a removeable stitch marker to mark the “right side” of the work. If you don’t have one, you can use a piece of scrap yarn to mark the right side.

Yarn: Approximately 170 grams/ 375 yards of DK weight yarn.
The cowl was designed for use in our Kit with Merino Silk DK. Other types of yarn can be used; be sure to swatch to ensure that you like the resulting fabric, and that you have enough yarn to knit to the dimensions of the pattern.

The kit contains:
100g Midnight Teal (Main Color – MC)
35g Lavender Ice (Contrast Color CC #1)
35g Atmosphere (CC #2)
35g Lichen (CC #3)
35g Blue Spruce (CC #4)