There is a long story behind this cowl, but let’s start with the yarn. I bought the yarn a long time ago without thinking much about what I will do with it (as I did with much of my yarn), mostly because I liked the softness and the color. Almost two years before I even started on the cowl, I made legwarmers from this yarn and learned three things from that process: 1. this yarn knits into a beautifully soft garment, 2. but it is very painful to knit with (the silkiness, the strands that come apart during the purl, the horrid pain that is the yarn over with the combination of the previous two factors), and 3. to say this yarn was wrong for the application is an understatement. No matter how tightly I knit, it just wouldn’t stay up on my legs, even when I used tights. So I took all that apart, bought new yarn for the legwarmers, and left this yarn until I found something to use it for.
Then I found a great pattern that was versatile enough to make something I have been wanting to make: a convertible cowl that can be used as a wrap, cowl, or scarf. So I tested it out on a swatch and then cast on for the real deal. Aside from the yarn having the same imperfect qualities (I like how the cowl came out, but I will never knit with microfiber yarn ever again), this was a fun knit. At least the saving grace here was that I was working on circular needles instead of DPNs that kept falling out because there was zero friction.
I had to stop knitting this for a long time and even contemplated taking it all apart because I was shown a disturbing war video while knitting and I couldn’t look at this project without the gruesome memory resurfacing. It was a long time to mostly get over the unfortunate associate my brain made, but I finally decided I wanted to be done with it and took it with me on a work trip. So I knit in the airports and on the planes to pass the time and all but attached the two ends together before I got back. I actually finished it on the flight home but didn’t want the trouble of taking a needle on the plane, so I did the binding off and attaching at home. I never blocked the waves, but I keep thinking about it because the wavy edges curl under when I wear it. This has definitely been a project I get a lot of compliments on, especially when I wear it as a wrap over a dress and the pattern really shows.
It’s still a bit too silky over bare shoulders and slides down, but it’s great with a dress or as an infinity scarf (I loop it around twice).
Here are links to this project on Ravelry and Pinterest.
