Tesserino Cowl

We have had some wicked frigid weather here this winter. No snow, though. I love snow. I want it to snow. But there is nothing like sitting all cozy with some yarn in your lap and something sprouting from the ends of your needles or hook when it's cold outside. Throw in a big mug of tea and some Netflix and I'll hibernate. Well, I would hibernate if I didn't have to go to work.

But anyway, when I went to Vermont a few months ago we got a nice little swag bag of yarn goodies at the retreat. I had some Plymouth Yarns Galway, and some of their Gina. I decided to use these to make the Tesserino Cowl. This is a free pattern offered by Louet. All you have to do is sign up for the newsletter (which you can always unsubscribe from), and they'll email you the pattern. Here's the link.

Anyway, the colorwork technique used is mosaic knitting. It's a slip-stitch technique, so you're only knitting with one color per row. Slipped stitches create the pattern. There are some floats to manage here and there in the pattern, but nothing long or difficult to control.

So here's my finished cowl:

I used the recommended needles, but this did come out a little bit tight in the stitching and smaller than I thought it would. Now that I understand how this technique works I understand why (the slipped stitches pull the fabric a little bit, making it tighter). If I made this again I would needle-up, that's for sure (or figure out how to elongate my stitches without pulling them too much). But it's a pretty fun knit, and pretty cool to see the design emerge. There are books of mosaic knitting designs, so if you'd like to do colorwork but are nervous about color-changes and floats this might be a nice starting point.

In this next photo you can see the slipped stitches--they're twice the height of the 'normal' stitches next to them.

And here is the back of the work, which is kind of fun to look at, too.

This cowl was supposed to finish a bit higher (I did five repeats instead of eight) because I thought the full size might be too stifling. I do like the thinner size, but I wish I had done a thicker black garter stitch border, as I don't know if what I did is enough to keep it from curling (it's been wet blocked, and is OK so far). We shall see. Here it is on:

I wanted it long enough to double-wrap, but it's not (and looking at pattern photos it's not supposed to be). However, it's an easy ten-stitch (if I'm remembering right) repeat, so that'd be an easy adjustment. Knitting it in thinner yarn as a borderless tube that you kitchener together into an infinity scarf would be fun, too.

This was a fun knit, I love the way the stitch looks, and it's an easy technique for a nice impact. Colorwork of various forms is my 2018 knitting objective (oh, if only I could write my work goals with the ease I write my craft goals) so I'll share my adventures as I take them.

Now, I must trot to bed. I was up a bit late last night. Not sure if any of you paid attention, but our Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, and I was a bit wired last night. Toodles!