Heliotrope Cowl

Heads up! This post contains affiliate links which means I get may get a commission if you purchase something based on my recommendations here.

My dear friend Will recently moved to Bethel, Maine and surprised me with this yarn he bought from Sunflower Farm near his new home.  It was absolutely lovely!

It seemed like the perfect amount of yarn for a cowl but I didn’t want to do fair isle pattern because I didn’t want floats inside the cowl – that would seriously bug me.  I considered looking for a double knit pattern since i haven’t done that technique in quite some time, but I wasn’t sure if the yarn colors had quite the right amount of contrast for a flat project and I was suddenly inspired to look for a brioche stitch pattern which would add some texture to the project.  I also haven’t done any brioche knitting in a while, not since I first learned how in the Explorations in Brioche Knitting Bluprint class.

Once I had that down, I popped onto Ravelry advanced search and entered my parameters: knitting, cowl, brioche, 2 colors, and 460 yards of worsted weight yarn… and boom! Ravelry spit out 58 patterns to choose from.  Don’t you just LOVE technology?

I originally started this cowl with tan as the background color and purple in the foreground, but I got about 3 inches in and just wasn’t feeling it.  Then I had this great vision of wheat growing against those famous purple mountains majesty we sing about and I immediately unraveled it all and started over with the colors switched.  This made a world of difference and I love how it turned out!

yarn details
Lana Plantae Rambouillet Worsted in Cochineal and Black Walnut
Worsted Weight
100% wool
Hand Wash / Dry Flat
113 g/ 236 yd skeins (gifted to me in Sept. 2018)

project details
pattern: “Heliotrope Cowl” by Michele Bernstein (download for $6.50 on Ravelry)
needles: size 5 nickel plated circs (using the short cable on my Knit Picks interchangeable set… I forget the length on that one?)
yarn used: 113 yards of Cochineal and 97 yards of Black Walnut (just under half of each skein)
finished size: 7” tall and about 26” circumference
duration: September 29 – October 12, 2018