You know I love a free pattern and this is no exception! It is the free Litmus Cowl pattern by Jude Harper who is the incredible indie dyer behind Stranded Dyeworks – it is available to download for free on Ravelry (but I can’t find it anywhere else so if Ravelry isn’t safe for you, I’m sorry!)
This yarn and I have been through some changes, they started out as some 5g minis that I was very generously sent as a yarn advent calendar by a friend to brighten Christmas 2020. I fell in love with the Festive Cheer Cowl by Yarnia Designs (even though that calls for 10g minis) and decided that I could make it work. By combining two colours per section to make 10g, I did indeed make it work but after I knit 20 out of 24 sections I decided I didn’t like it!
I loved learning mosaic knitting and the pattern is well written, I just think I had incorporated too many colours and the rainbow I had gone for was starting to look a little too children’s-tv-presenter, even for me! So Christmas 2020 I packed this 80% completed cowl away and tried to forget about it…
Fast forward to November 2021 and as a new advent was creeping around I decided that I was feeling guilty about letting this lovely yarn go to waste, so I sat and carefully unravelled thousands of stitches. By this point I had thankfully discovered that the Litmus Cowl calls for 5g minis and a full skein of a neutral shade – perfect for neutralising that children’s tv presenter look! I picked out a beautiful rainbow of 24 shades and a ball of neutral cream West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply. This pattern is super simple as it is stockinette knit in the round but because it’s fun watching the colours change I personally didn’t find it boring. It is a lot of stitches though – 56,000 stitches!
Top tip – weave in the ends as you go! I knew I wouldn’t want to weave in around 100 ends at the end of this and I am so glad I wove in my ends as I went along – I highly recommend if you make one that you do the same.
Because of the spectrum of colours in this cowl, I think that this will go with lots of outfits and I don’t think I will have a problem styling it. I think the finished item is really pretty and it was a great scrapbuster, I will definitely bear this in mind for future gift-knitting and scrapbusting!
For those of you who are here for sewing content – don’t worry I’ve got some next week to share!
Making and Books 