Pattern Release: Undamo Cowl

When Marian of Marianated Yarns approached me about doing a collaboration and I decided to do a mini collection, I knew that I had to come up with a piece that used one of her gorgeous mini skein sets. There are plenty of dyers out there who do mini skeins, but I was so drawn to Marian's sets when I went to look at her Web site the first time that I had to get my hands on one. Luckily Marian was happy to enable!

My Undamo Cowl started with the same swirling motif as the coordinating socks and hat, but that motif was only a starting point. This cowl is entirely stranded -- in fact, the only two rounds that don't use two colors are the cast on and the bind off. If you're relatively new to stranded colorwork, this is a great way to practice. There are no long floats, plus the six background colors you use keep things interesting the whole way through even though you are repeating the stitch pattern.

This cowl uses DK weight yarn, specifically Marian's Playtime DK for the main color and a gradient Jujubee DK mini skein set (the yarn is the same base). I've honestly never used a gradient that blended so effortlessly from one color to the next as well as this set did -- Marian's clearly got a real touch with her gradients! The all-over stranding makes for a really warm, cushy fabric, and the cowl is long enough that if it's a really cold day, you can pull it up over your ears and face.

I'll admit that I saved this pattern for last because I was so looking forward to knitting it. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I'm really pleased with how it came out. I hope you like it, too!