Fill-The-Gap Cowl

I love the look of cowls.  I love how they are scarves that don't have annoying ends that come unwrapped or are bulky under my coat.  But, I've never really had luck wearing any of the cowls I've knit.  They are either too bulky to fit nicely under my jacket, or they are too loose and don't actually stop the wind from going down my jacket.  After trying to knit a bunch of different patterns and not having them work, I finally put a bunch of them together and came up with the Fill-The-Gap cowl.

This cowl is constructed from the bottom up.  First you knit the garter stitch bottom band.  Then, using decreases and short rows you shape the body of the cowl.  Once you have reached the size you want, you finish with a matching garter band.

Please join us on Ravelry and add your project!  Fill-The-Gap Cowl

Here's a bad pic.  Hopefully I will get a better picture with my jacket so you can see the full effect.

What you need:

Needles: US 7 - 4.5 mm

Gauge:  21 stitches/4 inches

Yarn: 100/150 yards of DK weight. 

Glossary: 

S2KPO: Slip 2 stitches together knitwise, knit 1, pass the 2 slipped stitches over the knit stitch. (This makes a centered double decrease.) 

Bottom Edge:

Cast on 131 stitches, place marker, join to work in the round and purl 131 stitches.

Round 1: K64, S2KPO, K64  (129 stitches)

Round 2: P63, S2KPO, P63  (127 stitches)

Round 3: K62, S2KPO, K62 (125 stitches)

Round 4, P61, S2KPO, P61 (123 stitches)

Round 5: K123 stitches

Cowl Body:

This section is worked using paired decreases and short rows. First you are going to just work short rows until the cowl measure 3 inches from the beginning tip.  Then you are going to start doing decreases on the knit side. Here is a good tutorial on short rows: The Purl Bee

Short Row 1: K63, wrap and turn

Short row 2: P3, wrap and turn

Short Row 3: Knit to the wrapped stitch, knit the wrapped stitch making sure to pick up the wrap, K1, wrap and turn.

Short Row 4: Purl to the wrapped stitch, purl the wrapped stitch making sure to pick up the wrap, P1, wrap and turn 

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the cowl measures 3 inches from the tip.  End with a purl row.  Each row will increase the number of stitches you are working.

You are now going to decrease every second knit row. The purl rows will remain the same as row 4.

Short Row 5:SSK, knit to 2 stitches before the next wrapped stitch, K2Tog, knit the wrapped stitch making sure to pick up the wrap, K1, wrap and turn.

Short Row 6: same as row 4

Short Row 7: same as row 3

Short Row 8: same as row 4

Repeat this 4 row set 6 times.

Then start decreasing every knit row (so alternate Short Row 5 and Short Row 4) until there are 10 stitches left between wraps which you have not yet knitted.  (So - as you knit the short rows, the number of stitches you were working increased, and the number of stitches that were left alone decreased.)

With the knit side facing you, knit to the marker picking up the wrapped stitch as you go.  Then knit another round picking up the other wrapped stitch (you are knitting the entire round including the 10 stitches that you haven’t knit since the border). 

Knit until short side (where the round begins) measures 2 inches.

Top Edge: (3 garter ridges)

Round 1: Knit 1 round

Round 2: Purl 1 round

Repeat these two rounds 2 more times.

Bind off using Jenny’s “Surprisingly Stretchy Cast Off”

Weave in ends and steam block.