FO | Ellerbe Cowl

Meet my latest Finish Object (FO), the lovely, Ellerbe Cowl, designed by Melissa Stajda. The pattern was released on the first day of Fall, and the knit-a-long (KAL) is going until the end of October. 

THE PATTERN  |  I loved working this pattern! It has enough going on to keep the knitting interesting, but without being so challenging that you need it to be quite in order to make it - I did a lot of the knitting on public transit, during my commute. All you need to know is how to make yarn overs and simple cables. The rest is knits and purls, in the round. The main body is lovely moss stitch, which adds great textural detail, without being overwhelming. The cables add a lovely detail, that is still subtle and elegant, and pairs well with the main body.  This is a great project for learning to knit in the round, making cables, and yarn overs, so if you don't know how to do these already, there is no reason to fear this project.

SKILLS  |  Before this project came along, I had never attempted cable work. I told myself I wasn't that into them, but really I was intimidated. Now that I've made them and seen how simple they are, I wish I had tried sooner! This is a great pattern to learn cables on - three is not a lot of cabling, but enough to get you used to making them.

CABLE TIPS  |  Melissa was super kind and helpful and right before the pattern release she gave a tutorial on cables via Periscope. One of the things I really enjoyed was the discussion on what people like to use to hold the stitches. Her personal favorite (and now, mine) for smaller cables, like the ones in the Ellerbe Cowl, is to use a stitch marker instead of a cable needle (or toothpick, or spare DPN, etc).  The thing that makes this method so great is that,  a)  the stitch marker is tiny, so it's easy to push it in front or behind the bits your working, and  b) the hooked shape keeps the stitches in place. As a bonus, I almost always have those on me, but might not always have a cable needle handy.

THE YARN  |  For my cowl, I used some Tosh DK that I had picked up at Happy Knits in Portland, OR.  The color way is Silver Leaf, and it's a lovely blue green color, with some slight variations in saturation (which seems to be typical of the Madelinetosh yarns). The pattern calls for worsted weight, but when I looked at the gauge for the pattern, and the gauge on the yarn tag, it matched!  The Tosh DK is a bit heavy, and has a drape, and the pattern uses up only 60-70% of the hank - I have nearly 40 grams left, and the cowl weighs in a little over 70 grams. It's a little stiff in the beginning, but once you wash and block it, it becomes more soft and squishy. Being a super wash, it is good for gifting, as you won't need to worry about your friend tossing it in the wash.

CAST ON  / BIND OFF   |   I cast this on with the German Twisted method, my favorite stretchy cast-on. At first I was a little concerned about the amount of yardage it would eat up, but I had plenty of yarn left over, at the end.  For the bind off, I tried the Sewn Bind-Off for the first time, as it was the method suggested in the pattern, and by some of my fellow KAL-ers. The bind-off worked great, and matched the cast-on well, which was my main concern. I am not a fan of flaring edges on my projects, even if they are to be stretchy, and both of these methods gave me the clean ends I was looking for.

THE TAKEAWAY   |   This is a great pattern! I highly recommend it! I am about to cast on another, this time for my sister. This is easily modifiable, too - you can make it deeper, wider, fuller... And, you still have two weeks to jump in on the Instagram KAL!

Let me know if you have any questions, or if you've also tried the pattern.

Enjoy!