Double-up Hat and Cowl

The Double-up Cowl, arranged so you can see the right side on inside and out.

I had a gorgeous DK-weight advent set from Emma’s Yarn and really wanted to do something cozy and stripey with it! To showcase all of the colors, naturally I used my favorite pairing of provisional cast-on and 3-needle bind-off.

I wanted something extremely quick and satisfying to knit, but thought garter stitch might be a bit TOO boring. With slipped stitches in the mix, it was more engaging to work on. They of course look great on solid color yarns, but I also like seeing how variegated/speckled yarns change when you have these extra-long stitches.

Look how nicely the cowl stays up around my neck! Peak coziness.

Since the end goal was to fold the cowl in half and get a sturdy fabric, I made the fabric biased in the hopes that the shaping would help support the fabric. And it did! The biasing, when folded, creates a triangle which helps to keep the cowl propped up around your neck. My mom said it’s the first time she’s had a scarf or cowl that actually stayed up below her chin, which is what she wants to keep warm. (I’m sure the double-DK-weight didn’t hurt either)

Because I’m lazy and extra, I wanted to add fringe to the cowl but not have to seam it beforehand. Thus, I used the fringe to tack the two pieces of fabric together! Of course, it’s always an option to seam it and forgo fringe entirely or forgo seaming and add fringe! A could of my testers added fringe to one edge but left the other end loose so they can choose to fold or not.

The Double-up Hat (and headband!) on the snow

With the headband and hat, I stuck to garter only. A big part of that is because I needed the extra stretch to accommodate multiple sizes, but also because I wanted to rush through the stripe knitting to get to the crown of the hat! The headband/hat brim is also worked on the bias, though, so I think the pieces maintain continuity. And you should be able to knit both from your 20g advent set - I made a cowl, a hat, a slightly larger headband, and I still have leftovers I think I’ll use for socks!

I admit that my original drive to create the headband was so I’d have something to keep my ears warm when I go to the gym on cold days and have my hair up, but after I made the hat…I fell in love with that version! I do still grab the headband when I’m heading out with my hair up, and it is delicious to not have my ponytail squashed or loosened by a hat.

Counting the Days is here!

The last pattern in the Marking Time collection is here and ready for your advent kit scraps!

Weirdly, though my main goal for this project was to work well with advent kits, the yarn I used was a collection of 24 5g minis from Canon Hand Dyes. That at least gave the correct yardage limits as if I really were working with scraps, so it all worked out!

Though my natural inclination with a simple daily knitting project is always garter stitch, I wanted a little bit of SOMETHING for visual and knitting interest. I found a simple lace pattern that has the added bonus of creating a slight chevron shape, and it worked perfectly! I couldn’t believe how much fun it was to knit the sample - that confirmed it as the perfect daily advent kit pattern. (Of course, it would be equally fun in a single color; that way you don’t have to pause in between each stripe!)

My favorite type of cowl is one where the different colors/patterns circle around your neck, rather than stack vertically, because the vertical type ones always end up hiding some of the design in the folds. This cowl is long enough to wrap twice (though I didn’t get any good photos of that since I later discovered a huge logo on my jacket was in every photo!)