A cozy cowl inspired by the beautiful autumn colors found on a walk through the woods in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Pairing a semi-solid color with a variegated color shows off the dark shades seen in the shadows of the forest floor against the ever-changing seasonal colors displayed in the tree canopy. The cowl is worked in the round as a long tube, using linen stitch to knit the two colors to create an overlapping gradient effect, and then the ends are joined together to form your cowl. Wear it on your next walk through the woods.

Materials:
Yarn: two skeins of Knitted Wit Sport Weight yarn, (100% Superwash Merino; 380 yards/347 meters per 4 oz/113 gram skein), Colorways Bing Cherry (Main Color) and  Autumn Rainbow (Contrast Color) used for sample. Or two skeins of a smooth, multi-plied, sport weight yarn, in MC (semi-solid or solid colorway suggested) and in CC (variegated or speckled colorway suggested), approximately 370 yards/338 meters per skein.
Needles: US size 9/5.5 mm needles, or size needed to obtain gauge. 16”/40 cm circular knitting needle is recommended. Note: gauge swatches should be blocked for most accurate measurements.
Gauge:

• 18 sts/26 rows = 4”/10 cm in Stockinette stitch on US 9/5.5 mm needles.
• 24 sts/42 rows = 4”/10 cm in Linen stitch on US 9/5.5 mm needles. Notions: yarn needle, stitch markers

Finished cowl size:
Adult Medium (42”/106 cm circumference, 8”/20 cm wide after blocking)

Pattern Notes:
The cowl is worked in the round as a long tube, knitting the two colors to create a repeating gradient, and then blocked to dimensions. The ends are joined together to form a loop, and voila you have a cowl! There are several ways to join the ends of a knitted tube, each to the knitters personal preference. This pattern includes instructions on how to seam the cast on edge with the bound off edge, forming a neat seam. Please note that if you’d like to join two ends of your cowl together using a grafting method, you will need to use a provisional cast on to begin.

The yarn color changes will be hidden on the inside of the cowl as you knit in the round, be careful of your tension when you switch colors to create a smooth and even fabric. The yarn can be carried inside the tube as you switch between colors, thus avoiding the need to break the yarn between sections and creating extra ends to weave in when finishing.

This pattern can be modified to accommodate different yardage amounts, depending on your yarn choice. While there is no perfect way to estimate yardage, with some swatching, weighing, and math, you could potentially determine how to adjust the pattern for the yardage you have. My pattern modification recommendation is to cast on a smaller number of stitches (the pattern requires an odd number of stitches), which will affect the width of the cowl but not the length, thus using less yardage. Work the rest of the pattern as written.