The Illy Cowl & Pattern

I was inspired by the fabulous Ilene of Much Love, Illy and her love for mustard colored accent pieces, so when she very patiently dealt with my first blog advertising endeavor, I decided to send her a little something.  I had some designs floating around in my head, but this one spoke to me as really being her style, so the Illy Cowl was born.

 (picture stolen from Ilene, with her permission of course)

 Here's a couple close-ups.

 It's an easy, fairly open lace-work pattern that looks far more complicated than it actually is.  It's also lightweight and comfortable on.  

 I played around and took some pics before I mailed it off.

 Last week I worked on a purple version, which I inadvertently made wider than the original.  (Nothing like screwing up your own pattern, huh?)  I forgot that I only put one repeat of garter rows between the lace repeats, oh well.  The mix up caused me to run out of yarn in the middle of THE VERY LAST ROW.  Sooooo frustrating!  And it was during all the snow and total yuckiness, so I really couldn't just run out and get more.  I had really meant to finish it and post it in my etsy shop as soon as Ilene had posted about the original.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?  Thursday night I finally made it to the store to get more yarn and after finishing a couple of other pending projects this afternoon I got to finish it!

 So here it is, the slightly wider version of The Illy Cowl.  I am going to post both versions, but know now that I did not swatch (sorry, I hate swatching and think its rather unnecessary on a cowl).

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern.  Like I said, its an easy to memorize pattern, so its good for on the go knitting.  Oh, and the purple one is for sale, see the listing on etsy here.

So, here it goes, The Illy Cowl pattern:

Materials:
For the skinnier version: 160-170 yards worsted weight yarn
For the wider version: 180-200 yards worsted weight yarn
Size 10.5 circular 20" knitting needles
One stitch marker to mark beginning of round

Cast on 100 stitches using your favorite stretchy cast on (I did basic long tail)

Join in the round and place marker to indicate beginning of round.  Take care to make sure no stitches are twisted.

Original Version:

Round 1: Knit
Round 2: Purl
Round 3: Knit
Round 4: Purl
Round 5: Knit
Rounds 6-10: (YO, K2tog) around
Round 11: Knit
Round 12: Purl
Round 13: Knit
Repeat rounds 6-13 3 times more (total of 4 lace sections) or until desired width
Next round: Purl
Next round: Knit

Bind off all stitches using your favorite stretchy bind off.  I used Jeny's Surprising Stretchy bind off.  Weave in ends and block to open up lace pattern.

Wider Version:
Round 1: Knit

Round 2: Purl

Round 3: Knit

Round 4: Purl

Round 5: Knit

Rounds 6-10: (YO, K2tog) around

Round 11: Knit

Round 12: Purl

Round 13: Knit

Round 14: Purl

Round 15: Knit

Repeat rounds 6-15 3 times more (total of 4 lace sections) or until desired width

Bind off all stitches using your favorite stretchy bind off.  Weave in ends and block to open up lace pattern.

The pattern can also be made longer or shorter.  It will work with any even number of stitches.  This pattern has not been test knit by anyone but myself, so if you notice any issues or typos, just please let me know.  Happy Knitting!!