Star Chart is here!

I’m wearing the Star Chart cowl wrapped twice around my neck and holding up one of the wraps in front of my face to show off the marled garter and brioche triangles.

I’m happy to announce that my new infinity cowl, the first in a set of three patterns, is now available on all the usual places! The design and the name were inspired by a set of minis from Ritual Dyes - it came with 12 mini skeins inspired by each of the zodiac signs and I’ve been waiting for the perfect project to use them in since I got it.

Despite my love of socks, I decided to go with an infinity cowl for this design. I think I mostly wanted to be able to show off all of the colors at any given moment, depending on how I wrap the cowl. (With socks, there’s just no way to avoid having something hidden inside the shoe!) And, for whatever reason, I’ve been really feeling a need to marl all the things lately. Marling 2 fingering weight yarns means DK-worsted weight, which is convenient both for strain on my hands and speed of knitting up, but I wanted a little SOMETHING fun to look forward to with each color (besides getting to knit with it, of course). And marling can sometimes obscure the color (on account of the marling). Thus…I settled for 2 color brioche!

Two version of the cowl (one with a cream background color and minis in rainbow order, the other with an almost-black green background color and minis in zodiac order) are hanging from a tree branch.

I didn’t want to do a whole increase/decrease round thing, and since I already had the 2 colors ready to go, I figured, why not split them up for the brioche sections? The gauge is pretty similar after all. And because I can’t leave well enough alone, I wanted to use short rows to make triangular wedges of brioche rather than rectangles. Also, the original design I was toying with was focused on alternating triangles that I just couldn’t make work as intended, so this KIND of achieved that, though in a totally different way. Small victories!

On account of the brioche and the short rows, this pattern is on the intermediate-advanced end of the scale. However, don’t let that discourage you! If you’re new to brioche, it’s just a technique you haven’t learned yet. And I’ve included tutorials in the pattern made by brioche-queen Sosu (Susanne Sommer), so you’re in excellent hands for picking up this new skill.

I’d love to see this design in a variety of color choices - obviously it’s ideal for that endless and beautiful collection of fingering weight scraps and partial skeins I assume everyone else also has, but it’s great for half-vent sets (or those new-fangled Halloween advents, which are also ingenious and perfect!), or even two full skeins! The right side will showcase all your myriad scraps, but it’s reversible thanks to both garter and brioche, so you can always pick which side to show off.

You can get the pattern below, or scroll farther for links to the entire collection!

Links to the collection: