Simple & Mindless

One yarn trend I’ve noticed in the past year is brushed alpaca – a fluffy and light yarn that has the halo of mohair but none of the prickliness.

This cowl was cast on when I needed a simple and mindless social knitting project. It’s sort of based on the Superior Cowl but I only took the initial stitch count from that pattern: cast on 100 sts, work six rounds of garter stitch, then mindless stockinette.

But not quite. When the mindlessness was starting to get to me, I added some shaping to make the cowl into a short poncho. Veera Välimäki’s Float (that I’d knitted before) has a long cowl followed by short-row shaping and yoke increases, so I adapted the increases from that pattern to fit my stitch count. And then finished with another set of garter-stitch rows. Very simple, mostly mindless.

• On Ravelry: Simple & Mindless

• Pattern: Superior Cowl by Patricia Scribner with some Veera Välimäki’s Float thrown in

• Yarn: 2 skeins (50 g/398 m/435 yd) of Lang Yarns Alpaca Superlight (54% alpaca, 22% merino, 24% nylon) in color #72495

• Needles: 4.5 mm

#knitting #cowl #alpaca #VeeraVälimäki