Hope those who celebrate had a safe & joyous Thanksgiving with the ones you love! How many of you ventured out at the crack of dawn to shop the Black Friday deals? I am blissfully content missing out on that adventure every year mainly because I enjoy the warmth and comfort of my bed & cherish my sleep wayyyy too much to save a few bucks. Plus there is hardly a reason for me to shop for deals because my gifts are mostly handmade bundles-o-love 😉
Speaking of bundles…& love…& gifts:
I mentioned in my previous entry how I wanted to knit a particular cable pattern but was unable to find a free pattern for what I had in mind. So I came up with my own & want to share it with you today. Enjoy this fairly easy chunky cable knit cowl/neck warmer pattern. It is my Black Friday thank you gift!
If you do not knit but would love to own one of these cabled cowls you may purchase one from my etsy shop. My grand re-opening will begin on 12-1-14 🙂 I have loads of cozy items waiting to be listed so feel free to favorite my shop for future goodies 😉
If you are unfamiliar with knit cables but would like to learn check out these awesome tutorials before beginning this project. Once you’ve become comfortable with the basics of knit cables, this pattern is an excellent project to practice & master your new skills!
The Purl bee
How to cable for beginners on YouTube
cable tutorial
* A quick knit & if you are ambitious can be completed in one evening which is great for those of us who enjoy a little instant gratification in our lives 😉
** edit: This pattern uses American knitting terms. Until recently I had no idea there were differences but apparently there are *blush*. Thanks to the blogger who so passive aggressively kindly brought that to my attention 😉 .
Cowl measures approximately 19″ length x 7 ” wide using the materials & 5 pattern repeats listed below. If you’d like your cowl longer or shorter just add or subtract one pattern repeat. (12 row)
Materials :
1 skein of chunky yarn.
I used a little less than one skein (109 yrd) of Alize Superlana Maxi which is a blend of acrylic & wool & is extremely soft-n-cushiony. It’s what I had on hand & was purchased in Cairo, Egypt so I’m unsure if the exact brand is available everywhere however any equivalent chunky yarn will suffice.
Size 8mm or 9mm knitting needles. (I’ve tested both sizes & find they worked nicely with this yarn. The end result is not remarkable enough to note)
Cable needle, dpn or circular to hold stitches for working cables.
I have actually used chopsticks but that will not work with this chunky yarn so I will save that information for another post 🙂
Large Buttons. Depending on how many you would like to close your cowl. You can work 1-3 in this pattern. Buttonhole placement I will leave to your discretion. I’m leaning toward the one button cowl but both look nice and do the job. You may wish to forgo the buttons (& buttonholes) altogether & sew bands of ribbon or fabric that can be tied into bows for closure.
Abbreviations:
C/o -cast on
B/o -bind off
K -knit
P -purl
Sl- slip
Dpn- double pointed needles
Cable stitches:
C8f – sl4 stitches purlwise onto a cable needle leaving draped in the front of work, k4 stitches from left needle, k4 stitches from canle needle, k4 stitches
(12 stitches in total)
C8b – k4 stitches, sl4 stitches purlwise into cable needle & leave draped in back of work, k4 stitches from Left needle, k4 stitches from cable needle (12 stitches in total)
Pattern:
C/o 26 stitches using the long tail cast on method
Begin and end pattern with a 4 row border (buttonhole is worked on the last 4 row border edge)
Row A- K1,p1 across
Row B- P1, k1 across
Repeat rows A&B once more
((Right side)
Rows 1,3,7,&11
(K1, p1) x 2, p3, k12, p3, (k1, p1) x 2
(Wrong side)
Rows 2,4,6,8,10,12
(P1, k1) x2, k3, p12, k3, (p1, k1) x2
Cable rows (right side) Rows 5 & 9
Cable row 5: work in pattern as row 1, cable is worked over the center 12 stitches: (c8f, k4), continue row in pattern as row1.
Cable row 9: work in pattern as in row 1, cable is worked over the center 12 stitches (k4, c8 b), continue in pattern as in row 1.
Repeat these 12 rows of pattern to desired length (mine is 5 repeats with plenty of yarn to spare for additional repeats) ending with 4 additional edge rows a & b
Buttonhole row is worked over the very last row A in this pattern
Please refer to this method to work a three stitch bind off to add (3,2 or 1 buttonholes )spread evenly over 26 stitches.
B/O in pattern, tuck in strands.
If desired: Hand wash/rinse using cold water with a little wool safe powder/liquid & lightly block by stretching gently into shape & drying flat taking care not to stretch pattern too vigorously as you want those cables to remain full, fluffy & defined.
Finish by sewing button(s) to opposite side of buttonhole(s).
Wear it.
Gift it.
Enjoy it ❤
If you run into any problems, errors or confusion please feel free to bring those to my attention & I will try my best to correct/clarify.
Off The Hook! thread designs by KeKe 