I had been saving a special bundle of mini skeins, bought for me as a birthday gift by my husband, and dyed up by the very talented Becky from Back to Blighty yarns. The set was named ‘Signs of Spring’ and I knew that I needed to use it in a very special spring inspired project. And so, my Spring is in the Air cowl was born…a warm and snuggly cowl using a simple heart motif designed to showcase Becky’s beautiful colourways.

I absolutely love lace knitting. I am constantly drawn to the romantic and delicate designs that can be achieved with a few simple lace techniques. It took me a long time to be brave enough to try it though and over time I have found ways to simplify lace knitting with the use of stitch markers, exploring the techniques and learning to read my own knitting to establish where mistakes may have occurred. One thing that I have also learned is that often what appear to be the most intricate lace designs can in fact be relatively simple to work into your knitting. I have designed a simple lace heart shaped motif for this design representing my love of the Spring and the promise of new life it brings. It is deceptively simple to work and I hope you enjoy using it in this project.

I have written out the pattern in both a short form and a long form depending on the level of detail you require when knitting. The short form instructions are written out in simple steps and indicate that you should work the pattern repeat 5 times. The cowl is worked from the top down.

The long form instructions are written out in table form, giving instructions for each round (even where a round may be a repeat of a previous round). If you are a less confident knitter, this will help you to keep track of where you are in the pattern and tick off each row as you go. Instructions in brackets should be repeated as indicated in the pattern.

Stitch markers are used within the main body of the cowl to help you keep count of your stitches and to make it easy to identify where any errors may have been made during the lace knitting. I have indicated where you should slip your markers. Your stitch count will remain the same throughout.

Charts for the lace pattern repeat are given on page 10 should you prefer to follow these. Instructions for placing and slipping of markers are NOT given in the charts but markers will need to be slipped as you encounter them.

I was inspired to knit this cowl by a set of 6 mini skeins that I received as a birthday gift nearly a year ago. I wanted to use all 6 minis in the cowl and so decided to use 1 colour for the ribbing at the top and base of the cowl and to work 1 pattern repeat in each of the other 5 colours.

I used 8g of the ribbing colour and 14g of each of the other colours in the sample (a total of 78g of fingering weight yarn).

It is however perfectly possible to knit the cowl in as many or as few different colours as you wish. You could use a single skein of yarn for the whole design or you could include extra minis by working extra pattern repeats. As with many of my designs, I like to encourage you to play with colour to achieve a beautiful effect that suits you and your own individual style and personality.