A few years ago, Iz, Katie, and I thought it’d be fun to do a cowl swap. I knit for Iz, Katie knit for me, and Iz knit for Katie. This spring we decided to reverse the swap! That meant I was knitting for Katie, and the cowl had to be teal. I know she likes other colors, but it’s the one I most associated with her. I spent a long time wandering around Tolt looking for the right teal yarn, and I finally settled on Blue Sky Alpaca’s Worsted Cotton, but there was only one teal skein. That was basically what set this design in motion because I decided to pick up a contrasting color and work out the details later.
Katie lives in Southern California, so I didn’t want to make a really warm cowl. The cotton was a good start, and I knew I was going to do lace or eyelets of some sort to keep things on the lighter side. That just left the big question of how I was going to work with two colors. I didn’t want to do color blocking because I did that one Iz’s cowl, and stranded colorwork would add to much bulk, and basic stripes didn’t seem special enough. After a bit of thought, I settled on using YOs to make extra long slipped stitches. Paired with the simple eyelets I chose, it has a really interesting effect. Sometimes the horizontal stripes stand out, and other times the vertical stripes are more prominent, and the rest of the time it just looks plaid. It was also just fun to knit
I packed it up and sent it off to Katie last week, and it arrived earlier this week! I often feel like I don’t have time to do stuff like swaps, but they always make me so happy when I do them. It’s a lot of fun knitting for someone else who will appreciate the time and details that go into a project.
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