A Tale of Two Cowls

I have two new cowl patterns coming out this month, and while they're pretty different from each other, they share a source of inspiration and are tied together in my mind.Both of these cowls are inspired by yarn: actually, they're each inspired by the exact yarns they're knit up in here.

First is Kermit-the yarn here is some dyed by my friend Tara. It's from her "Goblin Dye Works" line, which means that the two skeins I had were the only ones that would ever exist. I knew that I wanted to take full advantage of the color action going on here, and I wanted the change between brown and red to be the focal point. I toyed with a couple of different ideas before settling on some staggered ribbing, and I'm so pleased with it-it has a lovely bounce and drape, and it's so easy to wear with most of my fall outfits. I love a nice plain pattern for gorgeous dyed yarns-sometimes you just need to let the colors sing, and not detract from them too much with a complicated stitch pattern.

Pelligan was similarly inspired by some special yarn-I managed to snag the last two skeins of Bijou Spun Gobi Limited at Athena Fibers, and I loved the feel of the luxury blend so much, I knew it needed a pattern that would let those amazing fibers shine. I love the texture I got here, and it adds just the right amount of interest to a cowl where the fibers are the true stars.

Both cowls are worked in DK weight yarn, and since they're both meant for special yarns, there will be options in each pattern for 100g and 200g amounts. Kermit will be offered as a six-inch wide scarf, as well as the foot-wide option here, and Pelligan will have options for this cowl length as well as a full scarf. I just need to block the final samples and do a photoshoot, then these puppies are ready to go! I haven't decided which one to release first yet-which do you guys think? Or should I just go big and send them both into the wild at once?

**ALSO: The Great Northern Kickstarter ends on Friday, and there's still a ways to go to make this book a reality. If you haven't backed yet, I definitely encourage you to go check it out-there are still some amazing rewards up for grabs, plus the warm happy feeling you'll get for supporting such an incredible project. If you've already backed, but want to increase your pledge, Leah's willing to combine rewards to make custom backer levels if you see something else you want! Info on getting a custom reward is at the bottom of this blog post, so go check it out!**