Free Knitting Pattern: The Wintry Warmer Cowl

Wait, who are you and where have you been?

First up – yes, it’s been a long time since I blogged! I’ll do us all a favour and skip the lengthy apology post, but here are my main updates:

1. I’ve been living my best crafty life over on Instagram during my blogging hiatus.
2. I might have accidentally become more of a knitter than a crocheter – although I do still pick up a hook on occasion.
3. I now have a raging Westknits addiction, and have even been lucky enough to do a few test knits for Stephen. 

Now we’re all caught up, I have a free knitting pattern to share with you!

The Wintry Warmer Cowl

Recently, I set myself a challenge – a Big Balls Challenge. You see, when I bought the yarn to knit my second Penguono (you guessed it, a Westknits pattern), I over bought – by quite a lot.

I started with 3 big (400g) balls of Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool Nepp (purchased from Wool Warehouse). After I finished my XL size Penguono, I ended up with over 540g of yarn left over. I decided that I wanted to use as much of my leftover yarn as possible – and so, the Big Balls Challenge was born!

All of this preamble is to say – this pattern was born of the Big Balls Challenge, and came about when I was nearing the end of my leftovers.

I wanted a neat, small cowl to wear that would sit quite close to the neck. Usually, I make my cowls a bit oversized, but I’m then left with a chilly neck – which kind of defeats the object! 

I decided that, as I had two high contrast yarns available, I would make a fair isle, stranded colourwork pattern. And that, as I was making it a week before Christmas, I’d make it a bit Christmassy. So, the Wintry Warmer Cowl was born.

This simple fair isle project uses less than 100g of aran weight yarn in total, and consists of only 35 rows. It knits up in no time, and it’s easily done with a stash dive. Perfect for a last minute Christmas present!

I knit my cowl with less than £2.50 worth of yarn – which is one of my all-time bargain makes. I hope this free pattern helps you make an affordable piece of your own.

You can download the Wintry Warmer Cowl on Ravelry for free.