The Forget-Me-Not Cowl is a fair isle cowl worked in mini skeins against one background color. It begins with a provisional cast-on, and then the piece is worked in the round using the stranded colorwork technique. It is finished by grafting together with a moebius twist for maximum coziness!

For this design, John Arbon Textiles generously provided yarn support so that I could use their Harvest Hues 4-ply mini skeins in eight different colors. I used Silver Birch for the Main Color and Russet, Bracken, Pomegranate, Loganberry, Rosebay, Elder, Teasel, and Medlar as Contrast Colors. The colors are different enough to see individually, but they almost melt into one another because of the heathering in the yarn.

This is a perfect project for mini skeins (if you’re looking for an Advent project, consider this cowl!) or can be worked in as few as two colors. I used one full skein of Harvest Hues for the background with some left over, so you can use any fingering-weight yarn, but make sure that you have at least 350 yards of your main color to avoid running out! Each mini skein only used 5-10 grams, so 50 yards of each should be more than sufficient if using eight colors like the sample shown.

If using a different number of colors, adapt number of pattern repeats per color as necessary to reach the desired length. Your repeats may not be even. For instance, if using a 12-mini-skein Advent, you will want to knit a 2-3-3 sequence of flowers: 2 flowers (1 full repeat) in color 1, 3 flowers (1.5 full repeats) in color 2, and 3 flowers (1.5 full repeats) in color 3, and then repeat until all 12 colors are used.

This pattern could easily be adapted as a double-wrapped cowl - just cast on 2/3 of the stitches for the main color and avoid the moebius twist at the end. But please note that this might take more yarn, especially of the main color! Have fun - this is a great project for scrap yarn. My second sample (white with rainbow flowers) was worked in rainbow shifting handspun!