The Story Behind the Pattern:

It is said that there are two kinds of Carolina folks: those who are beach people and those who are mountain people. I’m a mountain person. I love the Carolina mountains … the Blue Ridge Parkway … the cool little towns and villages hidden from the highway, just waiting to be discovered. This cowl, which I worked on while on a road-trip through my beloved mountains, reminds me of the colors of these ancient mountains in the fall: the browns and reds and oranges of the myriad trees that dot the landscape. I hope you’ll enjoy knitting this cowl and wearing it in the depths of winter … thinking about those gorgeous fall days in the mountains.

The garment, as seen on page 50 of the November 2014-January 2015 issue of Cast On magazine, uses 2 skeins of “Oyster Heather” and 1 skein each of the following:

• “Bittersweet Heather”
• “Firecracker Heather”
• “Pumice Heather”
• “Papaya Heather”
• “Briar Heather”

Tips from the Designer:

if you want to use colors others than those shown here, that’s not a problem. You want to choose one main color (usually a neutral) and then the other five colors should complement. Be careful not to choose shades that are too close; to determine if the colors will work together – range in order from dark to light and place the yarn on a copy-machine; make a black/white copy to determine if the shades will be seen next to each other. If the colors blend together into the same shade of gray, change one out and repeat. Trust me, the time spent choosing colors that will work saves TONS of time and anguish later on.

You can make this cowl longer, adding another band of colorwork (inc on rnd 50 to 45 sts in each repeat by k2, m1 rep around for a total of 360). You can then use any of the charts to add this 4th panel, reversing the colors from dark to light or vice versa. Remember, you’ll need to increase the yarn requirements by another full skein each.