All About the Compose Cowl Pattern
I recently released the Compose Cowl pattern. This möbius cowl is covered with a detailed brick design, which is created using mosaic knitting.
I'd started thinking about mosaic knitting a few months ago and really wanted to experiment with the technique in my own designs. I decided I wanted to create a möbius cowl as I thought this would be a great canvas to design colourwork for. I began sketching chart ideas and knitting swatches until I'd created a stitch pattern I really loved.
I spent some time thinking about the colours I'd like to use and decided to use my Beehive Yarns 2021 advent calendar for the contrast colour. I thought the gradient of colours would work great around the cowl when combined with a solid main colour. I chose the colourway 'Raven Red' also from Beehive Yarns to use for the main colour as I thought this would look good with all of the advent colourways.
I created an initial draft of the pattern and started knitting my cowl. I hadn't done a mosaic knitting project in a while and found it really enjoyable. Mosaic knitting is an easy way to knit colourwork as you're only ever working with one strand of yarn, to use the other colour you simply slip the stitches to use the colour from the row below.
Whilst working on this pattern I created a tutorial for finishing a möbius cowl. It's quite a simple process, you start the cowl with a provisional cast on and once you've finished knitting you need to transfer your stitches to waste yarn. After blocking your cowl you transfer the stitches at both ends back onto needles, then slip half of the stitches at one end to add a twist. The final step is to use Kitchener stitch to graft both ends of the cowl together. I think when doing a project like this for the first time it can be helpful to have a video tutorial to clear up any confusion, or even just to double check that you're doing everything right. This is why I thought it would be a good idea to put together an accompanying tutorial for the finishing process.
I couldn't be happier with my finished cowl, it's turned out exactly as I'd pictured. I was actually a bit sad when I finished knitting it because I'd enjoyed it so much. It's a great project for advent yarn or for using up scraps of yarn, it can also be knitted with just two colours and works well as a two skein project. I won't be surprised if I end up casting on another one soon!
Click the link below to check out the full details of the pattern.
