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Puzzled Cowl – Free Knitting Pattern

Little cowls, or neckwarmers, like this are a handy thing to keep in your purse or glove compartment. They take up so little space, and when the chilly breeze hits the back of your neck, you’ll be glad you have a little something cozy with you!

This cowl is super-easy, a great beginner project, and easy to customize. It’s fits closely to the neck, so add a few more (even number) of stitches to increase the size if you want it a little loose. You could certainly play around with different size yarns and needles for this pattern. If you go down to a worsted weight yarn, definitely add a good 10-20 stitches so the cowl isn’t too snug. Using the suggested yarn (Premier Puzzle), or any other bulky weight yarn with a slow color change will give you a really nice color meld without the effort of extra ends to weave in. If you use an animal fiber yarn (the yarn I used is acrylic), know that the cowl will grow after you wash or block it. Just keep that in mind.

After some rows of a knit one, purl one rib, the pattern moves on to good old knit stitch until you reach your desired height (or just follow the pattern exactly), then it’s back into a rib. For the bind off, you should probably bind off in pattern (k1, p1 rib), or you could use your favorite special stretchy bind off. Sometimes I will use the Russian lace method, which is just basically knitting 2 stitches, then knitting those 2 together through the back loop. I bound off in pattern this time and it was plenty stretchy.

Premier Puzzle yarn worked up really well in stockinette. It just didn’t look as nice in garter or seed stitch. Which is fine because sometimes easy is best. Since the cowl looked so lovely, I made a matching hat, too! Find that here: Puzzled Hat – Free Knitting Pattern

Happy knitting!

Puzzled Cowl – Free Knitting Pattern

Supplies:

Size 10 – 24” Circular Knitting Needles
Approx. 150 Bulky Weight Yarn (5)

Gauge and Measurements:

7 stitches and 10 rows in 2” stockinette stitch
Measures approx. 8” tall by 10” wide

Abbreviations:
CO – Cast On
K – Knit
P – Purl
St(s) – stitch(es)
Rep – Repeat

Let’s begin!

CO 74
Join to work in the round

1. K1, P1 around

2. – 6. Rep 1

7. K around

8. – 33. Rep 7, or K until cowl measures approx. 6-1/2” from edge

34. K1, P1 around

35. – 38. Rep 34

Bind off in pattern
(K1, P1, pass K st over P st, K1, pass P st over K st, etc.)