All About the Vertex Cowl Pattern

I started working on this design with a pretty good idea of how the finished cowl would look. I planned to experiment with using lines in colourwork and knew I wanted to create two sections. The first section would feature a larger diamond shaped motif, and the second section would feature much simpler use of lines.

I began this project by knitting a swatch so I could work out my gauge, which I used to decide on the dimensions for the colourwork charts. I worked on the chart for the more complex section first, I initially focused on getting the central diamond motif right and adjusted the sizing a lot before I was happy with it. I then experimented with using lines to add details around this main design element. There were several iterations of this chart before it reached the final version. I then moved on to the chart for the second simpler section, this was actually quite tricky to get right because it needed to be different from the first chart whilst still looking cohesive. Once I was happy with both charts I was excited to start knitting the cowl.

For this project I used yarn I'd purchased at Yarndale in 2022 from The Fibre Fox. Colourwork cowls are one of my favourite things to design, so I'd purchased a few pairs of skeins for these projects. I opted to use the colours 'Pink Lemonade' and 'Beetroot', I'd had these two colours in mind from the very beginning of the project, as I thought they'd make the colourwork really stand out.

I really enjoyed knitting this cowl, the colourwork isn't overly complex and I found I only occasionally had floats that were long enough to need to be trapped. The two sections also kept the project interesting, as the first section was a bit more complex, but was then followed by the simpler section with short repeats that acted as a nice break throughout the project.

I'm really proud of this design, I love how the finished cowl looks, but also very much enjoyed the process of knitting it. I always really like working on stranded colourwork designs and this project has made me feel really inspired - I've got lots of new ideas for future designs!

Click the link below to check out the full details of the pattern.