Unseasonably Warm Neck!

When I told you about my Camilla hat, I hinted that there was also something warm and snuggly to for neck to match…

So what have I been knitting while the weather suddenly remembered it’s late spring and got “T-shirt” warm??

No, not a scarf….I’ve made the Jerri Cowl! A beautiful, incredibly practical, cosy-warm cowl design, again from Purl Alpaca.

Here’s the pattern pic..

If only I could look that good in this cowl!

I made it in ivory to match the Camilla hat. This was another commuting-knit project – easily fitting in my handbag.

Once I was past the start – this was an ideal train project – most of it is an easy fisherman’s rib, knit on a circular needle so no sewing up either 🙂

The start was surprisingly detailed (as ever with Kari-Helene’s designs)…

I used a long-tail cast on as I didn’t want a tight cast on to cause the cowl edging to pucker out of shape. The curse of a long tail cast on is that you don’t allow enough “tail” to finish casting on all the stitches. I got around this by loosely tying together the ends of two balls of yarn so my working yarn was from one ball and the tail was from a second. It gave me an extra end to darn in but when you are casing on nearly 250 stitches I could live with that 😉

After a few rounds of nice simple moss stitch there are bobbles – lots of them! Thankfully I remembered the trick I used for The Carol Cushion where I used  backwards knitting for the purl rows of the bobbles (backwards knitting is where you don’t turn the work at the end of a knit row but work from left to right with the right side facing you). This made it easier to do on the train without elbowing my fellow commuters in the eye while I worked 🙂

A few lacey rows and I was relaxing into the fisherman’s rib until I’d used up all of the three balls of yarn…Then the question of how to cast off?

I consulted my new favorite technical knitting book – Cast On/Bind Off by Leslie Ann Bestor – This book has 54 fully illustrated methods to cast on and bind off (Cast off if you’re English!!),  divided up into sensible categories like “stretchy bind off” and “decorative bind offs”with wonderfully simple advisc on  what application they are good for. I chose “Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bindoff because I didn’t want the “granny made me a polo neck sweater” effect of a taught bind off that wouldn’t fit over my head and had all the give of a steel rope!

So after all that technical explanation – do you wanna see it?

I’m not sure I’d wear it on it’s own like this …

Here’s a better close up…

See that pretty, pretty edging?

And this is what it looks like under a coat…

Weird look on my face – I will never be a “model”!

I love the fact I can wear something flimsy to my rather overheated office and put on my Jerri Cowl to keep me warm and toasty for the commute – maybe I’m getting old but my neck does get colder than the rest of me!!

And lastly one with the matching  Camilla hat…

Loving that combo!

These of course will go beautifully with my Kitten Mittens 😀

Except it’s now getting  warm outside. I’m gonna have to wait for autumn to wear this little lot .  Bah! 🙁

Completed Knit Report
Name: Jerri Cowl
Pattern: by Kari-Helene Rane at Purl Alpaca
Yarn: Purl Alpaca Medium (DK) in Ivory
Pattern Problems: None
Pattern Modifications: None (but used long-tail cast on and Jeny’s stretch cast off.)
Washing and Wearing: Very warm – too warm for this spring weather!
Knit It Again???: Possibly – not til winter though
Difficulty: Medium (because of the bobble, lace and attention needed to cast on and cast off.)
Rating: 4/5
Other Postings Relating To This One: None

 

5 Responses

  1. nursenikkiknits
    nursenikkiknits May 13, 2013 at 1:37 am | | Reply

    Gorgeous! It looks so snug and cozy (although I’m sweating just thinking about wearing it now!)

  2. goosefairy
    goosefairy May 13, 2013 at 5:01 pm | | Reply

    I’ve got to say, I much prefer the fit of the one you did over the pattern picture. I’d never be tempted to knit it from the pattern picture but yours? Now I’m intrigued.

  3. sheepinthelookingglass
    sheepinthelookingglass May 17, 2013 at 10:05 pm | | Reply

    I so agree with Goosefairy. The pattern picture is striking but looks a bit sic-fi somehow. Your version looks wearable. And fills the opening at the top of your coat without the bulk of a scarf. Almost makes you wish winter back – oh wait – hasn’t it just come back?

    Good reminder about the cast on – so frustrating when you run out of yarn with half a dozen stitches still to cast on.

  4. Knitascarf
    Knitascarf May 28, 2013 at 8:50 pm | | Reply

    AWESOME! warm neck, Thanks for sharing with us. http://www.learnhowtoknitascarf.com

  5. Pip
    Pip July 3, 2013 at 12:12 pm | | Reply

    oh they’re lovely together! I’d like them in a cherry red for the winter 🙂

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