Cowl crazy.

I feel like it has been forever since I've shared any finished knitting projects here! I have been doing lots of Christmas knitting lately (and making very good progress on my list so far :), but here are a few cowls that I finished up before I started gift knitting.

I used to not understand cowls. Why not just wear a scarf? But this year I've become a bit obsessed with them. They're a lot quicker to knit than scarves, they're not as bulky but still keep you warm, and most importantly: they generally stay put. They stay close to your neck and you don't have to keep adjusting them! I'm a cowl convert. :)

First up is the Downton Cowl. I've been wanting to make this one for a long time now. It's named after Downton Abbey, which is of course a plus, but I also love the chevron design. And it's a very easy pattern.

Another thing I love about this one is that it's not floppy. It's not snug by any means, but this is the first cowl that I've made that seems to stay in the perfect position around my neck. It doesn't droop over and let cold winter air in.

I used a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh DK in the oak colorway. Though I was automatically drawn to this color in the yarn shop, when I first started knitting with it I wasn't too sure about it. But the more I knitted, the more I loved it. :) It's a really unusual brown/gold color with black undertones and it almost looks greenish at times. It matches well with both brown and black, which is nice! I'm so glad now that I picked this color.

Next up is a cowl that I finished months ago. I actually posted about this one back with Stella's second sweater, but I never had pictures of me wearing it. It's the Chickadee Cowl pattern, though it has a whole different look when you use fingering weight yarn instead of the bulky yarn the pattern calls for. I absolutely adore this color. Once again, this is Madelinetosh yarn (Tosh Merino Light), and isn't it gorgeous? That company has the best yarn colors ever. I've been wearing this one a lot this fall and winter.

And the last one is pretty special, because this was my first time knitting with my own handspun! I wrote about the yarn here.

I had a pretty limited amount of yarn (just under 150 yards), so I knew I wanted to make a cowl. I did a lot of browsing on Ravelry and finally picked the Soggy Waffles pattern. It was such a quick project (and it seemed even quicker considering it was my first project after finishing my sweater!) and resulted in such a soft, squishy cowl.

I have to admit that when I first finished this one, I was a bit underwhelmed. The colors didn't come out exactly as I expected...I wasn't anticipating stripes. And while barber-poled yarn looks lovely in the skein, it does knit up very mottled. Anyway, I got over that really quick after I wore it a few times. :) It's just so soft (the wool is BFL) and I actually like the stripes now.