Surprise Cowl

This one's a follow-up to the Surprise Hat, the test knit from last month.

Again, the yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, and the pattern is the The Surprise Hat and Cowl by Cinzia.  Everything I'd say about the yarn and the pattern is really already discussed in the previous post.  As I mentioned, it's a very easy pattern to work with and to remember.  Obviously, I like it enough to make the cowl after test-knitting the hat!

 

I made only a few minor changes in the cowl, compared to the written directions:

• I went down a needle size (US9) and then knit the Large size.  As I tend to snag on things, I wanted the cowl lacy, but not too snaggy.  The smaller needle size gave me a slightly denser knit, not quite so open.  My aggressive blocking plus the cotton content in the yarn means that the cowl will stretch and drape plenty, even after finishing the blocking in the dryer (as I did for the hat). 
• I did 7 rounds of seed stitch for the borders, making wider borders than the pattern called for.  I wanted it to match the hat  :)
• With the wider borders, I didn't do all the pattern repeats.  I just worked it until it was about a width I liked, finished that pattern repeat and then did my border.

 

It's raveled here.

And those are really all my notes for that pattern!  I guess really, I just wanted to show off new pictures ;)