There is a treasure chest hidden within the walls of my local yarn store. Ok, it’s actually a wire basket filled with mark downs and discontinued yarns, but it serves me well and I always feel like I strike gold when I find a treasured hank of something special inside. The quantities are minimal, but somehow at 40% off I manage to convince myself that it’s great stash material and I make a purchase.
About six months ago I was digging through the treasure chest and found a beautiful hank of Cascade Magnum Paints. It was a captivating blend of multiple earth tone colors and thick single ply wool that seemed to have a halo of light radiating from it. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I couldn’t put it down!
Not yet knowing what I was going to do with this giant hank, a purchase was made! That hank sat in my stash four months. There wasn’t enough yardage to do anything special with, and this was surely a special yarn. So it continued to take up real estate on one of my many yarn shelves. The yarn stash continued to grow and projects flew off the needles, and Magnum Paints sat idle.
Several months and multiple trips later, I was digging through the treasure chest again and I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was a luxurious hank of Cascade Magnum Paints in what appeared to be the same color way I had at home! I snatched that hank right up and immediately started to design the perfect cowl in my head. Wanting to develop a pattern that leveraged the beautiful color, but was fun to knit with interesting stitch patterns, yet simple, the wheels were spinning. Yes, let’s make it bulky, wrap it around the neck twice…
I got home and cast on. 127 stitches to be exact. Working in the round, I started with a couple of rows of garter stitch to prevent rolling and went from there. The result? A gorgeous, warm cowl with simple and interesting stitch patterning that leverages the yarn coloring for interest.
Want to make your own?
Materials
2 hanks of Cascade Yarns Magnum Paints (Super Bulky Weight)
US size 15, 32” circular knitting needles
Stitch Marker
Gauge: 8 stitches x 12 rows in stockinet = 4×4
Finished size is 35″ x 7″
Pattern
Cast On 127 stitches using the long tail cast on method.
Join yarn for working in the round and place stick marker. Move stitch marker up at the beginning of each round.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Knit
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Knit 1, Purl 1 to the end.
Row 7: Purl 1, Knit 1 to the end.
Row 8: Knit 1, Purl 1 to the end.
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: Knit
Row 11: Knit
Row 12: Knit
Row 13: Purl
Row 14: Knit
Row 15: Knit
Row 16: Knit
Row 17: Knit
Row 18: Purl 1, Knit 1 to the end.
Row 19: Knit 1, Purl 1 to the end.
Row 20: Purl 1, Knit 1 to the end.
Bind Off
Weave in ends and block!