Hello everyone! With most of us at home, we’re all looking for something to knit to keep ourselves sane. This week I’ll share with you the Contours Cowl that I’m making with Donnina Merino Yarn. If you’re looking for your next project, the Contours Cowl is the perfect combination of enough interesting stitch design, but simple enough to not burn out the brain while knitting it.
Fibra Natura Donnina Fine Italian-Style Merino is the perfect soft and light yarn to make a spring cowl.
Today I’m sharing with you the plans for my Contours Cowl, and how I’ve adjusted to make it right for my spring wardrobe.
Later this week I’ll share the benefits of choosing the right knitting needles and notions for your project. There will be details on how to do the Alternating Cable Cast-On and the Simple Stretchy Bind-Off. I’ll also talk about how to block your cowl to give it that professional finish.
My final post this week will be about the growing world of online knitting groups where knitters are finding ways to connected despite the distance between us.
The original Contours Cowl knit with worsted weight yarn.
Anyone who has been following me on KNITmuch knows that I almost never knit a project exactly as written, and the Contours Cowl is no different. The original pattern in photo above called for worsted weight yarn, but since I was in the depths of February looking towards the hope of warmer weather when I started, I decided to go with the much lighter Donnina Merino instead.
I chose the subtle, pretty colorway Blue Hint. My goal was to make a slightly smaller, definitely lighter version of the Contours Cowl. Donnina is the sport weight version of the Dona yarn by Fibra Natura. Besides being all natural fiber and really super soft, it’s also a superwash. Bonus! The recommended needle size is 3 – 5 US [3.25 – 3.75mm] making it a sport weight yarn. Perfect for my Spring Contours Cowl.
The Contours Cowl in Blue Hint Fibra Natura Donnina Fine Italian-Style Merino yarn is a lovely addition to my spring wardrobe.
I still wanted the cowl to be large like the original, so I added 30sts to the total cast on making my stitch count 360sts. You can increase or decrease this cowl by any amount as long as you make it a multiple of 30 stitches since the cable count is 30sts and the twisted rib border needs to be a multiple of 3 to fit neatly into the pattern. Who knew when I grew up I really would need math!
The next adjustment I needed to make was to change the needles for my project. The original pattern called for 7 US [4.5mm] needles, but I used a 5US [3.75mm] to suit the sport weight Donnina yarn.
Tomorrow I’ll share more details about how I made my final needle choice. The smaller needles made the gauge smaller, but with the added stitches to the cast on the cowl still remained large enough to be impactful.
I made one other final adjustment to this pattern by doing only six repeats of the cable chart instead of seven. The result still makes for a dramatic cowl while leaving it light enough for spring layering.
Learn to make this light and lovely Spring Contours Cowl with Fibra Natura Donnina Fine Italian-Style Merino yarn.
To see all of the details on my Spring Contours Cowl adjustments you can visit my Ravelry Project page.
Join me tomorrow to find out why needle choice comes down to a lot more than simply the size, and see how I chose the best accessories to create this beautiful cowl.
Choosing the right knitting needles comes down to a lot more than simply the size, and see how I chose the best accessories to create this beautiful cowl in tomorrow’s post.
