Striated cowl

Striated Cowl by Nicki Merrall
© Amy Gwatkin 2016

Striated cowl

Let me introduce Striated, which is about to be published in the Spring 2016 issue of Pompom Quarterly.

Spring is my favourite season, but here in the UK, it can be a bit chilly. I wanted Striated to be light, but provide warmth when needed. So, Striated is a long, narrow cowl, that can be worn as a single loop or doubled up for extra cosiness. I used a simple, but striking stitch, that creates clear columns that run along the length of the cowl.

Long, narrow grey cowl hung from a white coat hanger. Cowl has striking vertical lace pattern which shows up against the light
© Amy Gwatkin 2016

Striated starts from a provisional cast-on and is knitted flat in rows using a faggot stitch edged with a chain selvedge. It is finished by grafting the two ends together so the finished cowl appears seamless. It would make a great project for someone new to lace knitting since there are only a few rows to the repeat.

Striated Cowl, detail

Striated will be easy to modify, should you prefer a shorter, wider cowl.

Striated Cowl by Nicki Merrall
© Amy Gwatkin 2016

What colour will you choose?

The folk at Pom Pom Quarterly wanted designs in the colours of natural wool, so I chose Spindrift, in Sholmit, from Jamieson’s of Shetland. This yarn is very light; a little certainly goes a long way, so only three balls are needed for the Striated. Sholmit is a pale, grey, sheepy shade. The colour of individual natural fibres varies slightly, which makes the yarn more interesting than most dyed yarns in similar coloured yarns. And as Spindrift is available in over 200 beautiful colours, you can knit your Striated in other sheepy colours or the colours of Spring such as Apple Green, Blossom, Cloud, Daffodil or, my favourite Anemone!

Striated Cowl by Nicki Merrall
© Amy Gwatkin 2016

Beautiful, simple, classy!

You can preview all of the designs from the Spring 2016 issue of Pompom Quarterly on Ravelry.
It’s not even published yet and people have left emailed me and left comments!

Gossipgal says Striated is …

Beautiful, simple, classy and very wearable design for all age groups. I am definitely going to make this!

And Killtocraft says about the Spring issue of PPQ …

You waved your magic wand!! OMG it’s a gorgeous issue and you don’t know how happy you’ve made me! I’ve had four balls of Shetland Spindrift in my stash for years now and could never find a project to use it, Sadly I’ve even thought of destashing it and then ‘Striated’ came into the pompom world. I’m so looking forward to casting on my Sunflower yellow spindrift for a nice spring Cowl and I can also team it up with my awesome new black dungarees 🙂 YAY!!

I can’t wait to see Striated knitted up in different colours.

Just like buses

You can imagine that the publication of a pattern is the cause of much excitement. Oh yes, the dancing around the room kind of excitement! And there was even more dancing at the end of last week. Friends who are subscribers to The Knitter emailed me to say they’d just received their copy of issue 94 and loved my design. I’m yet to see the photos. There’s no preview for The Knitter, so if you’re not a subscriber, then you’ll have to wait. I’m saying no more, I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

I did say that I’d been ridiculously busy from September to December. You’re starting to find out why!