When I had finished knitting this little number, the first title that came into my head for this blog posting was “14 shades of Brown”. Bit risky, I know, it might get a snigger out of one or two of you, but it is seriously what popped into my head. Each stripe of this cowl really shows off another shade of brown (with a touch of yellow and green). Now it’s no coincidence, I did sort of plan it that way, but I didn’t expect it to work out so well.

	I used just 2 yarns in this project. One was some of my undyed DK Baby Alpaca Luxury yarns that I sell on-line. I deliberately choose the DK weight as I wanted it to have a lighter more airy feel to it than the yarn I was going to choose for the contrasting stripes.

For the stripes I looked out for a colour changing yarn, that was a thicker weight than the DK and that had long lengths of colour in it before it changed into the next colour. The colours needed to “bleed” into each other for a subtle colour change. I didn’t want the colours to just abruptly change as that would spoil the whole effect.

I choose Drops BIG DELIGHT Print which is an Aran weight yarn in 100% wool. It comes in 100 gram balls (190m / 208 yards) and I didn’t use the whole 100 grams for this project. Just look at the gorgeous colours to choose from . I choose the "Chocolate Banana" colour  but just looking at those colours I can see I am going to have to try this project out on another ball or two! I am fancying "Wild Berries" or "Rose Garden".

I knew I wanted to knit a cowl. I wasn’t particularly bothered as to whether it was going to have a small circumference and be more like a snood that I could take over the head or whether it was going to have a larger circumference like an infinity scarf.  What I did  want though was each of the colourful stripes to be subtly different to the last stripe. I had to do some measuring and swatching. First I needed to measure how far it was between each subtly colour change. I then swatched my knitting on the needles I was going to use to see how much yarn I used when knitting a set number of stitches.  It only had to be an approximate measure, just to ensure that my method would work.

The difference between the colour changes for this yarn was approx 5m so if you have some colour changing yarn in your stash that you want to use for this project then that’s what you need to look for.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cast on 120 stitches using 4.5mm straight needles and the colour changing yarn.

Row 1 (RS): Purl

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: Purl

Row 4: Knit

Change to the Baby Alpaca yarn and then work the next 8 rows 14 times

Row 1 (RS): Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Purl

Change to the colour changing yarn

Row 5 (RS): Knit

Row 6: Knit

Row 7: Purl

Row 8: Knit

Cast off in Purl using the colour changing yarn.

Just a very light blocking is required and then sew up the 2 cast on and cast off ends together. The finished result should look something like this.

I've woken up this morning (after our best summers day yesterday here in the UK) to a mirky miserable low misty cloud. Summer is near enough over before it's even really begun :(. At least it gives us knitters a chance to start showing off our new autumnal makes. Which is exactly what I'm doing this morning. 

One of my knitting group friends brought in some lovely 100% wool in gorgeous tweeds a couple of weeks ago. One a lovely grey and white combination and the other a pink, grey and white combo. The yarn I purchased from my friend can be found here - WoolyKnit Countryside tweed.   I immediately set to work. I knew I wanted to make something for myself out of the grey tweed, something that I could wear over a couple of tops that had lowish necklines and that I could fling over my shoulders. I did a quick swatch to see if my needle size suited the lace pattern I had picked and to work out how many stitches to cast on  to make the shawlette long enough to fling around my neck. I cast on, worked 24 rows of the lace pattern and then set to work with some short row shaping, keeping it simple but NOT symmetrical was the key. I wanted it to look casual, so I could just throw it on and it would look super!.  What do you think?

Another version of the same shawlette I quickly knit for the shop. This time a symmetrical version, with some shaping to ensure the shawlette lie smoothly round the shoulders. It's a neat little knit, which will enhance your outfit and keep your neck and shoulders warm in the process. Small enough to slip in your bag too.

Its available to purchase here , Finished photos below.