Pretty Thing

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Very recently – about three minutes before I cast on this project, I got a skein of yarn for Christmas. It was a yarn that I’d seen a friend knitting with, and I’d fallen head over heels in love with it. This friend is the clever and generous sort, and I was so clearly and instantly smitten that she’d procured a skein for me and made a present of it.

It was this lovely bit of business…

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Roving Winds Farm 2ply cashmere, in what they call a “soft grey-brown”. (No. She’s my friend and you can’t have her. I’m not even telling you who she is so you can’t suck up to her.) There’s about 375 yards in that wee 60g (just over 2oz) skein, and each of them is a lovely, lovely thing. I wound it up straightaway, and began to cast about for a pattern to make with it, so smitten was I with it’s comely nature. I knew I wanted a cowl, since the thought of that softness by a neck was so perfect, and I perused the internet and ravelry madly to that end. I saw many great cowls as I travelled, but it turned out that I was having that pattern problem again. The pattern problem happens to me all the time, and I bet you’ve done it. It’s where I’ve already made up my mind about precisely what I’m looking for. I know exactly what it is that I want, how it looks, how much yarn it takes, what needle it’s knit on, and I end up not so much searching for a great pattern, as trying to locate the pattern I can see in my head.

Now it turned out this time (as it does a lot of other times) that nobody had written the pattern for the cowl in my head, and so I decided that maybe I would try to write down what I saw, and hope for the best. Now, I’m not a designer, and the occasional good idea doesn’t make you one, so this -despite being a good idea – at least the way it looked in my mind – doesn’t always work for me. Usually I end up with a really horrendous kindergarten level interpretation of what was in my head, because my head cares nothing for reality or the rules of knitting.

Not this time. This time I knit a tiny swatch for gauge, called Denny to see how big she thought a good cowl was (Denny is experienced in the ways of the cowl), consulted a few stitch dictionaries to see if my brain was even remotely on the planet, worked up a chart (thank you, knit visualizer) and started knitting.

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Several dreamy hours and 61 rows later (that’s a lie. The chart is 62 rows but I knit 74 because I had to rip out a part and change it because I was knitting a series of strange beak like structures into the thing.)

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I love it. It is exactly, precisely, 100% what I had in my head, and considering the sort of place my head is, that’s a miracle. The edges swoop the way I thought they would, the middle pulls in the way I wanted it to.

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It’s delicate and strong, feminine without being wildly princessey, and warm without bulk. I’m really, really thrilled with it.

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The best part (beyond a 61 row cowl, which is pretty darned good) is that the cowl weighs this:

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And the leftovers….

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weigh that. Dudes. I can make three from one skein! (This makes me want to walk into a yarn shop like it’s a local pub and shout something along the lines of “cowls for all my friends!” I may do that, actually.)

I may not be a designer (actually, I’m really not) but this wee cowl was definitely one of my better ideas. What a pretty thing.

527 thoughts on “Pretty Thing”

  3. I WANT ONE!!! It’s just gorgeous. And I know what you me about the princessly thing. I knit for teenage girls and I do my best to avoid things that are too precious.
    Any chance we are going to see this pattern available soon?

  5. It is absolutely gorgeous, and if you were to choose to share the gorgeousness with your faithful readers (in the form of a pattern– we are capable of foraging for cashmere) I am sure nobody would complain!

  6. pretty, pretty, pretty. I hope you consider posting the chart. I have really wanted to make a cowl but hesitated over size and pattern. Yarn I have a plenty.

  8. Today you are the Queen of the World. After all your recent calamities, you really deserve a day like this. I am absolutely stunned, because your cowl skills are absolutely stunning. (Yeah, I’m not the one with writer skills, that’s you again.)You Rock!

  9. What a fascinating pattern! It looks Sumerian.
    wantwantwantwantwantwantwantwantwantwantwantwant

  11. Beautiful. I made lace cowls for Xmas for friends. Now I need to make one for me. Love your pattern and thinks that’s the one for me. Let us know if you get it written up.

  12. that is just beautiful ! any chance the pattern will be in your next book?? Wish I had your abilities !
    Kim

  13. It’s a beautiful pattern. Congratulations.
    I would pay (or donate money to Doctors Without Borders) for a pattern of your cowl.

  15. Beautiful and must feel just delicious! I’m a fairly new knitter and can’t fathom how a brain must work to come up with a pattern like that – but I’m so glad yours does. I’m happy to know there was a little fabulousness available to carry you though the scary soil pipe thing! I would have needed a BALE of cashmere I think . . .

  16. I am absolutely in love with both the yarn and that gorgeous cowl! Absolutely stunning!

  18. Absolutely gorgeous! Regal looking in a totally non-princessy way 🙂 I could just tell from the sneak peek you gave us yesterday that it was gonna be beautiful. Lucky girl with the cashmere…
    Did you knit it in the round (I’m guessing NOT since you said “rows”) or do you fasten it in the back somehow?

  19. Um, excuse me, but you forgot to include the pattern link. Obviously we need it NOW!!!

  20. So when is the pattern available? I’ve been searching for the perfect cowl pattern myself and have yet to make one. Am I the last knitter on earth to make a cowl?

  21. Pretty thing, indeed! Not only very pretty, but the forecast says you’ll be needing that very soon. I’m with everyone else, please post your pattern.

  23. Absolutely gorgeous! And three from one skein is practically a miracle (manna from heaven, oil that burns for 8 days, loaves and fishes, three cowls from one skein of cashmere. It really fits the theme)
    If you really love us you’ll make the pattern available, but could you at least give the name (or names) of the lace pattern so we can try and be cunning like you and put it together ourselves?

  26. Indeed it is: a pretty thing. Good job!
    Looking forward to seeing the pattern available – you’ve got a winner on your hands!

  28. I can’t wait until I get to work with some cashmere! I’m trying to be very diligent in finishing current projects before I start more. We’ll see how long that lasts!

  30. What a beautiful knit! And here I thought you had sworn off even touching cashmere because of the pricey outlay. I’d change for that beautiful yarn too.

  31. Oooh. That’s all, just oooh!
    We are about to get somewhere between 4 and 12 inches of snow, followed by temperatures some 20 degrees (F) below normal. I could really get to liking me some cashmere! (Hmmm. I do have some skeins of Laines du Nord Cashsilk at home.)
    At least I’m not with my brother. He’s working in Fairbanks, Alaska right now, where the daytime temperature is a balmy -45 degrees Farenheit; it gets down to -60 at night. That is dangerously cold. Gasoline, even airplane fuel, turns into jelly in engines and fuel lines at that temperature. I think my brother might need a cashmere neckwarmer right now!

  32. You may not be a designer, but I really, really, really hope you will write up that pattern and make it avaiable. You could always ask people to donate to MSF in exchange for the pattern.
    I have some beautiful 2ply cashmere yarn that I think would be fantastic for it!

  34. I do so love it when the things my brain comes up with find their way out through my fingers. The sliver cashmere lining to the dark cloud of unexpected home repairs.

  37. …count me in among the pleas for your pattern. Because it is a pretty thing, and I have fallen under its spell. (Also, totally moved to a new city where it is never cold enough to justify any of my uber-thick “real” scarves. The way of the cowl tempts me so.)

  39. Gorgeous!!! Can we have the pattern, pretty please with cashmere on top? I happened to have acquired some yummy yarn over the holiday that would be perfect for pretty much that item.

  41. That’s really beautiful! And cashmere that isn’t from China is hard to find. Great yarn and a great FO. Good for you!

  42. That cowl is beautiful. I’ve never been extremely fond of cowls but this one sold me. It looks perfect on you… and the pattern is just exquisite.
    Also, that yarn just goes so far! Its amazing! 🙂

  43. Okay, I’m confused you have designed a beautiful cowl. You have designed it. Why aren’t you a designer? What makes you a designer? How many designs must you create so that you magically become a designer? What other hoops must you jump through? Can you claim this title yourself or do others elect you to the position? Please educate me. Thank you

  44. Absolutely lovely. “Warmth Without Bulk”…and unlikely to overpower a slightly stumpy neck (like mine). Do let us know when (hopefully not just “if”!) the pattern is available!

  45. Unfair! It’s 71 frickin’ degrees right now! I tell you, it’s TOUGH being a knitter in Texas. (But if I mention to my hubby about moving to a colder climate, I’ll end up in Oklahoma with my mother-in-law. Not even for cashmere!)

  48. What you’ve got there appears to be the Platonic form of the cowl. Gorgeousness, though I could never wear that colour. Which is, no doubt, why both yarn and pattern entered your hands/brain (respectively) and not mine.

  49. Dude, you rock that cowl. And here I thought people with longer hair looked dorky in them. I stand corrected. And now excuse me while I go stash-diving for the pattern notes that I know are forthcoming.
    (That wasn’t too forward, was it?)

  50. To add to previous comment, I would gladly pay for the pattern. I like the idea of donating to Doctors without Borders.

  53. I didn’t read the comments before me, but I’m going to assume they all read something like, “Please, please, please give us the pattern so we can all have warm, graceful, beautiful, feminine cowls for only 20 precious grams of beautiful cashmere!” Add me to the list.

  54. That’s really beautiful. I’m with all the others who would gladly buy or donate to get a copy of the pattern. Please??

  56. This is an amazing post! It’s interesting too, since I procured for myself a skien of laceweight cashmere for my birthday and want to make a cowl out of it. This project is very inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing! It looks absolutely divine.

  58. Oh PLEASE at least post the chart for the stitch, if not the entire cowl. That is just gorgeous and is a pattern that’s been in my head, too.
    Puhleeeeeeeeeze……….

  60. I love your cowl and the story of your cowl. You are an inspiration for all of us. Perhaps we too could some day, some how design something that works.

  64. When I’ve seen cowls on ravelry I’ve never been real impressed. This one is gorgeous and I’d make it and wear it. Pretty but not frilly, keeps your neck warm, and would look great dressed up or dressed down. I’m not terribly fashionable but this seems to hit the target. Great work. And I too hope you share the pattern.
    Regular reader. Don’t post a lot.

  65. dear Harlot, the cowl is simply beautiful. How I would love to knit one! Would gladly pay or donate for the pattern or the chart.

  66. I usually don’t leave comments, but that is beautiful!!! Please, please, pretty please can we have the pattern??

  67. Not a designer? Like you’re not a writer, or a knitter, or an all-round over-achieving super fabulous person that makes me want to grovel in your shadow and aspire to having something remotely approaching your life?
    Ha.

  68. The cowl is just beautiful! I have just joined a yarn club for sumptuous yarn, and have received my first skein of Mongolian cashmere. I have been looking all over Ravelry for just the perfect pattern. I, too, want to wear this lovely soft yarn close to my face (though I’ve had many tell me to make it into socks). Finding just the right pattern is so hard since I’ve joined Ravely-so many lovely choices! Your cowl is delicate, and feminine, and a perfect marriage of yarn and pattern. Great job!

  69. That is a gorgeous cowl! You could totally sell the pattern (KWB would definately benefit) and at 3 cowls per skein you could spank Christmas ’09 till the sheep come home!
    Ya done good!

  71. It’s beautiful. You are a genius. Now, you just have to deposit that good feeling you have about it into the bank, so that you can withdraw it when a pattern goes, say…awry.

  73. Will you share the pattern? I have a skein of Jade Sapphire cashmere in exactly that color that’s just been waiting for the perfect pattern!

  75. Wow, that is stunning! Can I join in in begging for the pattern? I have some angora from Rhinebeck that really really wants to be that cowl…

  76. You’re right, it IS gorgeous! Will you share the pattern? I need to have one, too, and I have a bit over an ounce of spindle-spun cashmere that’s begging to be cowled.

  77. I’LL be your friend! I mean, I’d be a REALLY great friend! I mean, I’d wear MY cowl all the time! REALLY! (In all seriousness, it is a rare and lovely thing, that cowl! You are certainly justifiably proud!) Now we will all kneel and chant… pattern, please?

  78. I never was much interested in cowls before but . . . DO WANT! Pleeeease give us a way to get the pattern! It wants to made up in alpaca, it just told me so.

  80. Awesome cowl! I do so hope that you post the pattern for the rest of us! I am not usually a cowl person, but that may all be changed.

  81. “Not a designer.” Hah! Looks like a design to me!
    (And add me to the list of those begging for a pattern, or at least the chart. I promise, we won’t rant and rave if it’s not test-knit for any substitution of wool/needle size/neck size – we can adjust too!)

  82. I have wonderful yarn (a gift no less) that this is reminding me of. I’m joining the crowds — please share the pattern? It’s lovely.

  84. You should PDF that pattern and sell it as a Raverly download. I’m sure most people would be willing to pay $5-6 for the pattern. It could go a long way towards house/car/washer/dryer expenses!

  85. And when are you going to share with us exactly how this was made and maybe you need to show off that fancy chart you came up with, too.

  86. I like the swoopey edges the best but if you’re knitting one for me I’d like it big enough to pull up over my head on bad hair days. You wouldn’t want beads with cashmere but with a lesser yarn I can see where you’d put them.
    I will always think of it as the wastepipe cowl. Sorry but it will for me be forever linked with the expensive but invisible plumbing job.

  87. PleasepleaseprettyPLEEZ share that pattern or sell it or otherwise make it available o great designer
    please?????
    multitudinous thanks in advance

  89. I’m curious: is the top edge the same diameter as the bottom edge? That’s my one problem with cowls – they tend to roll over at the top, eventually folding almost in half. I always think they should be slightly tulip-shaped to prevent it.
    Yours is really nice – especially the colour.

  90. Oh, no! You used software to generate the chart? Oh, no! Oh, dear! How are we to be bestowed with this lovely pattern? Can you do it? Are we allowed to have it? WOULD you do it? It’s just so absolutely beeee-ooooo-tee-mus! Can we bribe you, somehow?

  91. Hel-LO?! We know how to find you, and we will – all of us – lie in wait for you outside Lettuce Knit in order to procure that pattern. Ooh, even better, we will buy all the yarn from Lettuce Knit, so you can not have any more, and then lie in wait for you.
    Okay, we won’t, but we’d really, really like that pattern! 🙂

  92. You have GOT to share this….I love that! I was gifted some yarn and this would be perfect! Snap to it missy! I want this pattern…. ;D

  93. Yes, yes, please let us donate to Doctors w/o Borders or pay you for the pattern. It is gorgeous and i have a lovely skein of bamboo and cashmere that i bought at Rhinebeck that so wants to be a cowl and i so keep screwing it up.

  94. I LOVE that cowl. Amazingly wonderful beautiful job. I would never take it off! You MUST share the pattern with us 🙂

  95. I want the pattern, pretty pretty please and a thank you in advance, definitely positive thinking. Also, thank you for all the sharing and keeping us entertained during the winter months.

  96. Yes, it is lovely! And you should put up the pattern and I too will pay money for it. Love the idea of making it a KWB contribution.

  99. Lovely pattern and it stands up nicely. Some cowls are too slouchy for the Canadian winter. Would love to buy the pattern.

  101. I’ll add my pleads for that pattern to the rest….pretty pretty please?
    It’s lovely! (I know exactly what you mean about the pattern problem.)

  102. Ok, that’s one seriously awesome match between yarn and pattern. How wonderful to pull it out of your mind’s eye and into a pattern. So up my alley, both yarn and stitches. Beautiful.
    Please say this will be in the next book? And while I’m hoping, how about some matching fingerless mitts? Mmmm.

  103. I, too, will gladly pay for this pattern! I’ve already got the skein of cashmere in mind that I’ll knit it with. 🙂

  104. We can has cowl pattern? Pleez? Kthxbye!
    Seriously, you *must* write this one down and share it for a modest donation. If you don’t want the rewards going to the Soil Stack Fund, it can go to MSF. But it would be a crime against cashmere to keep this one all to yourself!

  105. OOhh lovely! And I understand the need to make a cowl, but the 2(!) hanks of Mongolian Cashmere that Santa brought me will be going straight into a cammisole. ‘Cause the closer to the skin the better when it comes to cashmere.

  106. Oh pretty pretty please can we have a pattern?!?? I was recently fortunate enough to be gifted with a gorgeous skein of qiviut in almost the same color as your cashmere and I’ve been searching far and wide for the perfect cowl pattern. This is EXACTLY what I had in mind. Stephanie, you are a genius.

  107. Ooh, I hope hope hope you make that pattern available. I think I’ll frog my quivit cowl and use the yarn for your cowl. Lovely!

  108. You are holding me hostage. I was just going to cast on for a cashmere cowl today, inspired by your last post. I was in the process of sorting my Ravelry faves to find a pattern. Then I get this update on my RSS feed… and I want to make THIS ONE! WAH!
    PLEASE make it available for purchase/donation, and PLEASE let it be tomorrow or I am going to start snapping wooden needles. ‘Cos I ain’t startin’ anything else ’til it is. Should I threaten to hold my breath?

  110. I’m a fairly new knitter myself, and looking at that beautiful cowl makes me have to check to make sure I’m not drooling. Beautiful pattern, beautiful yarn, and it looks wonderful on you. I really hope you will decide to share the pattern with us, be it in the form of donations to DWB, the Great Soil Pipe Disaster of 2009 fund, or whatever.

  111. Ooh! Ooh! Share, share, please! You would make your readers so happy if you wrote that up for us to buy. I have just the skein of cashmere for it.
    Also, thank you for this blog. It makes me happy every time I sit down to read with my cup of coffee.

  112. That is beautiful, and a perfect use for something as fab as cashmere. Add me to the list of people who are hoping you’ll write up the pattern – I have some hand-spun quiviut that would work perfectly!

  114. Okay, I never would’ve thought in a million years that I would want a cowl…..Guess What?
    Just gorgeous, I can almost touch it.
    Allison

  115. Is there such a thing as spun honey? That’s what I think of when I look at this.
    Lovely, Stephanie.

  118. Pretty enough to make me want to go somewhere cold to wear it. Now that’s seriously pretty.

  121. I must say, I’d been on the fence about the whole cowl thing … until now. That’s absolutely gorgeous! Can’t wait for the pattern!

  123. Wow. I respectfully disagree with your assertion you are not a designer. And I’d like the pattern, please.

  127. Now that you’ve written it down, you ARE going to share the pattern with us, right? 😀

  129. Just had to post once more to say that after reading everyone’s pleas here, Rams said it all in one fabulously, hilarious word!!
    And, I agree, you ARE a designer…isn’t this like the third or fourth thing that I have read about you “designing” in the past year or so? What about Baby Yours and Mine? And I am sure there were others…I mean, you dipped your toes into the designing pool each time you “modified” a pattern, right?
    Keep it up, we are rabid, I mean avid, fans!!!!

  131. Oh please Stephanie–don’t tempt us and then not share the pattern. That cowl is a lovely work of art! I think you should consider yourself a designer.

  132. Absolutely beautiful! I agree, could you share the pattern in return for MSF donations?
    Glad your house is back to normal!

  136. It’s gorgeous! That looks like an excellent KWB pattern to me — a little luxury for us and help where it’s needed in the world. Everyone wins! Pleeez?

  139. Beautiful-I think you just may be an undiscovered designer-remember the baby sweaters,the Blue Moon Hat,The tulip sweater???Anyway-are you going to sell the pattern,offer it to those who contribute to Dr.’s without Borders,put it out through the “Windy” yarn company(pattern so many $ if purchased with yarn) or (and rightly so) keep your own little secret??
    What ever you decide, I think it is definitely a Designer Cowl”.

  140. I’m hoping that you generous nature will allow you to share that beautiful pattern with us.
    When will your books be available for the Amazon Kindle?

  142. That is absolutely beautiful! Now I wanna knit something soft and pretty…you have to share the pattern! Pretty please?

  143. Pattern PLEASE ! It is gorgeous, particularly for a non designer … looks like a great knitting design to me !

  144. That sound you hear is me sucking up to you BIG TIME! You could make me crawl up to Canada on my hands and knees, to clean your house for a month–all for that FABULOUS cowl pattern. Or to save us all time and humiliation, you can request a donation to Doctors w/o Borders AND a shipping and handling fee (which could go toward Sir Washie II). Please? Pretty please?
    Truly, that cowl is stunning. Thanks for posting the photos! Now, stop teasing us…

  145. Just a question to throw out there to those who have ordered online from wholesaleyarn.com (C&W Enterprise) I ordered on Dec. 27th and the wool hasn’t been delivered yet. It is coming from Canada to Maine. Should I be worried that I’m being duped? Has anyone ordered from them? Just starting to worry, don’t want to worry needlessly.

  146. Now you know, having said that you made a chart for this thing that every one with any shred of persistence is going to wheedle till you cough it up and we may knit one. As I see from the comments beforeme there is some really good whinging going on in preperation for bugging you every time you emerge from your house. Insiration calls for a hefty price:) So can we have it yet?:)

  147. OMIGOD!!!! PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO MAKE THAT THING OF BEAUTY! my heart is racing and my hands are all shaky-jangly with just the thought of the yarn sliding along the needles. mmmmmmmm. PLEEEEEEZE share with us!

  148. You are teasing us, right? Talking about charting the pattern with no mention of whether or not you intend to share it. Consider us well teased.

  150. Imagine if 1,000 of your readers bought that pattern for $5 with proceeds going to KWB? and then they tell their friends, and so on, and so on…

  151. Congrats on such a successful FO!
    In these parts we call such a garment a neck gaiter, so much more practical than a scarf with its lumpy knot. I spun up some yarn to make one – now where did that get to? You’re inspiring me to make mine!

  152. What I love about us knitters is that we are an honest and frank bunch…frugal (shrewd?)where it counts (lux yarns (3 cowls from one skein!), budgets (after all, there must be cash for yarn!),housework (i can argue the line of slovenly if you need…),yet it is not hard to get us to part from our practices when duty calls (friends in need, yarn sales, and opportunity to give). Only knitters would volunteer the idea to sell a pattern in the name of helping others…and that is as it should be. We understand value better than anyone, I think. Get the best “yardage” you can for that pattern…I’m all for the idea of pattern sale for KWD and s&h for sir washie II – best idea I’ve heard yet! I’m waiting with PayPal under arrow for your decision!

  153. So pretty! Dare I hope that it will become a Ravelry pattern someday?
    I have to say that looking at it makes me think of flowers, from roots to blossom. Do you see what I see or am I crazy? Well, anyway, it’s gorgeous. Do you know roughly how many yards it took to knit?

  154. Sounds like we all want to be in that pub when you yell! You did a magnificent job at translating the image in your head into reality. And I’m wondering too, what are you using to fasten it together?

  155. Wow!!
    I agree with Barbara’s earlier comments….. 1000 of your fans x $5 for KWB……

  157. I would love to purchase this recipe to make a cowl for my picky aunt! She is petite and scarves are usually too long or too bulky (she believes in wearing layers under her petite coats). Please put it up for sale on Ravelry or something…. please,please,please!

  158. I’m absolutely smitten. If my brain were more creative, that is EXACTLY what it would have imagined, and not found a pattern for. So I’m wondering when we send our donation to KWB/MSF how they’ll know we were bribed by your cowl pattern. (hint, hint)

  159. I don’t have cashmere, but I have the perfect alpaca lace yarn for this…I cannot wait for the opportunity. Great design!

  161. That truely is a thing of beauty and must be a joy to behold. You are right to guard her identity cause I would try to steal her for my friend.lol

  162. Just fab. Now you know you’ll have to write out the pattern soon as I’m sure everyone (including me) would love to make one;)

  164. Ok, write it up, tell us how much it is and apply the revenues (which will be plenty) to your leaky emergency. See…everyone will be happy!

  166. Barkeep, I’ll take a lovely, understated laceweight cowl in a beautifully realized color–put it on the tab of that wee, daft Canadian woman, who is apparently having the same.

  169. Oooooh, that is lovely! And I totally get what you mean by searching for a pattern that is only in your head. I have wasted way too many hours looking for patterns (with a specific yarn even) that probably don’t exist anywhere.

  171. Oh so pretty and yet non-frilly! I love it. Add me to the “Pattern Please” chorus. I know at least three women in my life, not including myself, who would love one. 😀

  174. WOW! I love it. Perfection. Are you by any chance going to make the pattern public?

  175. It’s perfect. And all the more so because it didn’t let your original vision down in reality. I can just imagine how it feels on…

  176. “This makes me want to … shout something along the lines of “cowls for all my friends!”‘
    I think you just did!

  177. What Rams said.
    I would love that pattern. I have a wee tiny skein of soft prettiness that would be perfect for it…

  180. I’m so thankful you didn’t tell everyone that I gave you the yarn. You have no idea.

  183. I am in total awe of you, Queen Stephanie of the Woolly Kingdom! The cowl is just perfect. Please, please share the pattern with us all – or make it a download for KWB. I’d willingly pay for something so beautiful!

  184. Ooooh, sooooo gorgeous!!! Are you going to give us the pattern, because I’ve always wanted to knit w/ cashmere,, but I could never afford how much it would take for one project. Or I would be afraid that the project wasn’t “worthy”, or I would have it on a part of my body that I would be afraid wouldn’t feel the softness enough (like a hat). *Please* give us the pattern!!

  185. Pattern details??? Someone lovely gave me cashmere for Christmas and I was having the same search issues you had, and of course I have *nothing* in my head to tell me what it should look like, until now — and seeing that.

  186. You’re gonna share the pattern ……. aren’t you????? If not for sale then maybe for p/hop donations? Please, it’s so pretty. You see you are a designer.

  188. You could generate 2 million dollars for Knitters Without Borders if you sent out the pattern for that amazing cowl for a donation of any size! May I be the first in line to make that donation?

  191. Yes, please, I would love it if you shared the pattern! I’ve been wanting to make myself a cowl…

  192. This is just beautiful! I have been making a few cowls lately…but none that is as pretty!

  193. I’ve made quite a few cowls and you have it precisely correct. The pulling in at the middle is genius. I agree with Christine Drews – put the pattern up for purchase with all proceeds going to KWB.
    And WHO are all these people that got cashmere for Christmas? Are they not facing an economic downturn where they live? 😉

  194. Received some grey alpaca for Christmas and wanted to make a cowl to go with the hat I designed, but the cowl was a TOTAL failure, so I reformatted it back into a ball and will try again. So, not a total loss, since I learnrd what not to do. Your’s is lovely !!

  195. Stephanie
    Just finished reading your cowl blog entry. It is one of the most lovely cowls I have ever seen. Not surprisingly I want to knit one. When I looked at the comments it seems like everyone else does as well.
    So, how about this: write it up, sell it on-line and give all profits to Doctors Without Borders. I bet you’d make your million before you know it.
    Just a thought.
    joyceetta@gmail.com
    Iowa, USA

  196. Breathtaking. but I’ve been to too many Ren-Faires, the second picture looks like a corset cover.
    I 300th the motion to let us donate to KWB (or the Squire Washie fund) for the pattern.

  197. Today the electrician who I give Christmas presents to came. I was armed only with hope, the ability to use a circuit tester and the knowledge that I couldn’t hide in the corner and knit my vest. It did not go well.
    Please take pity on a fellow sufferer and put your pattern up on the Rav and $3 or $5 per knitter later, your plumbing problems will be a thing of the past.
    Alas, I have no pattern talents that will pay for what my electrician friend tells me it will cost to repair what happened when the morons who installed our generator did it the “easy” way instead of the “right” way. Whimper.
    I believe I have a skein of red cashmere I can go pat now….

  198. Crap. That is so nice. And I know for cowls. Yum. We need that friend to get more of that yarn, 3 will not be enough. Trust me.

  201. That is a very fine cowl you’ve knit, lovely. There is nothing quite so nice as a warm, soft yarn embracing ones neck or face as the case may be. It is bloody cold here in Montreal and this winter I made up my mind to be properly garbed for the cold so I knit a balaclava in 4 ply cashmere. -30c, ha! only my eyeballs are at risk of freezing now.

  202. Wowzers! what a lovely design! please let me know when you get this pattern up for sale, I’d love to buy it!
    now all you have to do is wait for cool weather, put on that beautiful soft wonderful thing, and head out to show her off… maybe get some nice white hot chocolate or something 🙂
    give yourself all the credit you deserve, you may not have been much of a designer in past… but face it 🙂 I think you might be now!
    congrats!

  203. You are such a tease! You design a lovely cowl. You mention a chart. We see the cowl. We desire the cowl. Yet, no chart. Please tell us it will be forthcoming. Paypal is sooo easy…

  205. Yes, I would donate to Doctor’s without borders for the pattern too…please please please

  206. First the awesome hat that I am even now knitting for my husband, and now this? You keep this up and you will have to start calling yourself designer, missy.

  207. Lovely cowl, really lovely! But what inspired me to comment was your hair. I know you can only see a little of it in one of the pictures, but your curls look fabulous. Those of us with straight hair are often jealous of curls. You have written of hair angst in the past, so I thought you might appreciate recognition of a good hair day.(And yes, it feels a little weird to compliment the hair of someone you don’ really know, but I’m doing it anyway).
    Cheers!

  208. Can we make one? Can we make one? Please. Please. Please. Pretty please. Pretty please with cherries on top.

  210. You are too a designer. That cowl is gorgeousness personified. That takes a designer, chickie.
    Please write it up (the chart and a few tiny tiny words – we know you know words) and sell it to the masses. Because they’re never gonna stop wishing you would. I won’t and I don’t think I’m unique in that. We’ll probably bug you about it periodically too. Just think of the time you’d save by just caving in now and selling us the pattern.

  212. Though it is wonder to gasp and laugh and feel the pain of your many recent posts, it’s posts like this that I love most. Splendidly done!
    I’m about to leave the country and have been knitting goodbye gifts for all my friends – the one who taught me to knit has held me up though – what to make!? I do lace, she does not, but of course I don’t want to get mired into a big project… I think your cowl would be perfect for her. It’s stunning, simple, and gracious. As you are a knitting monument of kindness I’m going to rest assured that the pattern will indeed be posted for us, your loyal legions. Please?

  213. Perhaps a pattern for sale to benefit KWB/TSF?
    Just sayin’.
    (Happy to help format, if’n yer lookin’ for that sorta thing.)
    I foresee great fundraising potential. … Look at all of us, lusting mightily!

  214. I’m going to add my request begging for the pattern. I’ve got just the yarn for it…something from a musk ox that demands special attention.

  215. Ooh, pretty! It looks incredibly soft, warm & feminine. Not prissy, though. Well done!

  217. So…SHARE! I may not be fancy-pants and have cashmere, but I have a lovely bit of left over baby alpaca that I’m wanting to cowl with. I made some Crofters Cowls for Christmas and am enamored with the warmth and practicality. I need more.

  218. Oh, that’s gorgeous. I must join the throng of people hinting/asking/begging for the chart–I have a small but special skein of yarn that would love to become something that gorgeous.

  219. I dream of the day that I can even see a pattern like that in my head, much less create one. That is exactly how I want a cowl to fit and look.
    Do hope you share the pattern; free or not, I’d love it.

  220. I know that you write knitting books, so I will try hard to wait until your next book for the pattern for this even though I’m freezing now (although I have a perfectly good alpaca mobius which I love and wear all the time but I also have a nice skein of cashmere which is so much softer than the alpaca and it would be so pretty knit up like this… it’s red.. red cashmere… maybe I’ll go get the skein and pet it.) So I’ll wait impatiently for your next book… which will have this pattern… right?
    And seriously… my friends never give me cashmere… My husband doesn’t even give me cashmere, tho he gives me nice knitting things like a swift… you’re SO LUCKY 🙂

  221. Wow Ms Yarn Harlot I hope you are going to write up the pattern, that is absolutely stunning and sell it of course:)

  222. Dearest Steph:
    Please add my voice to the clamoring hoard begging that you write up the pattern.
    Thanks ever so kindly.
    xx
    Smitten

  225. Beautiful! I am so impressed! And, yes, like everyone else, you must share your ideas with your several million (at LEAST) good friends. Pleeze?

  226. I will add my voice to those asking for the pattern to be published. Please. I don’t have cashmere, but I do have some baby alpaca.

  228. Oh oh oh!!!
    Keeling over with cashmere lust here. I LOVE the lace pattern and how its drapy enough without being sloppy and speechless (ok, near speechlessness) with the desire to pet it, or it’s cousin.
    I bet you’d raise some damn fine money for KSF by selling that chart, dude.

  229. Gorgeous – I’m gonna have to go look for some of that yarn – & in that color which is fantastic. I think that thing about visualizing very specifically what one wants is a common thing. I know I’ve done it (in fact, your cowl is very similar to something I’ve thought about) & my 5 year old grandson will go on & on with great detail about exactly what dinosaur related toy he wants- describing details down to color & exact size. I have learned to ask him if he has seen the toy he is describing or if it is something he thought up (after spending hours & hours in Toys R Us & on the internet searching for a toy he described wanting for his BD. I explained that, if something can be knit or sewm, I can probably come up with a reasonable facsimile, but, otherwise, we can only get him something if someone makes it!

  232. Here’s one more request for you to make that pattern available to us mere knitting mortals! It is beautiful and would be worth every dollar of a skein of cashmere. Well Done!

  233. Absolutely stunning. I wish the things in my head could translate as well as you’ve done here. Clearly, you are a *much* better designer than you give yourself credit for!!

  234. Gorgeous! Please tell me that you are going to share the pattern! Because oddly enough the cowl in your head, that came off your needles is just what the cowl in my head looks like, but a bit better. I too have been searching for the perfect cowl and now I found it. I even have the yarn. Handspun, one ply cashmere and one ply tussah silk. And it is just the right amount for your cowl. I think it could be knitting destiny. Oh please share the pattern!

  235. Pattern is lovely! Great idea – write it up – charge a fee – do a pdf – zap! Just like that your leak – Mr Washies replacement – or parts of thereof will be paid for – – and – -we will have a lovely pattern! Deal?

  237. Cowls for all my friends, too….maybe you should write it up and since sooooo many of us want the pattern, you could make it the knitters w/o borders…and as I scroll up I realize that others have suggested it before me…but you could name it the Borders Cowl…I’m just sayin’.
    Either way, you are too clever for words. (well, maybe a few words…like “smarty pants” and “designer” or “enabler”…you choose) 🙂

  241. Oh, yes, please, pretty please, pretty-yet-strong design cowl-share.
    And you say you’re not a designer….

  242. I’ve been looking at cowls patterns. This is one of the nicest I’ve seen. I better get myself to the pub, just in case.

  244. OR you could make pretty fingerless knitting gloves to match (not that this is practical in -40 weather…) But who cares! Cashmere on hands AND neck!

  246. Oooohhh… so pretty! Would you be willing to share the pattern? I love the color. I have a skein of cashmere that I don’t want to make just anything from.
    Good job in designing it… I can’t design for the life of me.
    Oh…BTW, I’m glad your little water leak was just that — little and that it did no damage to your house. Someone is smiling down on you. 🙂

  247. Stephanie,
    I’m not going to be greedy and ask for the pattern, even though I want to. Now on to more important matters, who says you are not a designer? Did you not dream up the pattern from your own pretty little head? Did you not chart it and proceed to knit it? Post the picture? And might I ask how many of us are asking you to write up the pattern so that we can make our hot little knitting fingers happy by knitting this beautiful little bit of knitting scrumptiosness.
    Now who is a Knitting Designer, say it out loud after me, I AM A DESIGNER!!!!!! Now I expect to see the pattern the next time I go looking for a cowl pattern on Ravelry or Etsy or What ever your choice is?
    Jane From Bellevue, WA
    P.S. Sorry, about being so bossy, but sometimes we all need a proverbial kick in the seat of our pants. It really is lovely

  249. Mmmm… yummy! A cowl that doesn’t sag and create fibery triple and quadruple chins above a bib. I knew there was a reason I ended up adopting that orphan ball of pale gray KidSilk Night from my LYS.
    And I know how you feel. I have the same problem with Christmas shopping – I know what I want, and can never find it. Maybe, some day in the future, womankind will invent a magical device to render into reality all of our fantastic ideas… until then, I’ll just depend on lovely creations from talented designers like you, especially if obtaining them involves a contribution to a worthy charity…
    (HINT. HINT.)

  252. It’s beautiful, Stephanie. Isn’t it awesome when something we imagine looks the same in real life as it did in our imagination. It looks soft and I’m sure will keep you very warm during this very cold winter, and many winters to come.

  253. Stephanie, the cowl is so very beautiful, absolutely lovely and stunning. Count me in line to purchase if you decide to sell the pattern. (I’ve also been seriously enjoying the page a day calendar and sharing the info with Bobby :^) (Ned Ludd, how about that!)(today’s ‘stash’ helped quite a bit as he stood looking into ‘the’ closet.)

  259. I haven’t read the comments yet, but I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one who says, “You are so a designer!” That is a beautiful cowl, and so soft looking. In the weather we’ve been getting in the GTA, however, I fear one needs more than a cowl. We need knitted face masks with holes for eyes and mouth, AND a cowl around the neck. And two pairs of mitts, and double socks, and…I fell into a snowbank the other day while walking my dog. I can’t wait for spring.

  260. Stephanie, it’s just beautiful. Congrats. I have been looking to make a cowl myself and combed through the patterns on Ravelry with no satisfaction. Yours looks just right – it hugs close in enough to do the job of keeping you warm and loose enough to be pretty.
    PS. The DWB idea sounds a very good one!

  261. Along with the rest of the world, I would LOVE TO HAVE THE PATTERN FOR THE COWL and I’m happy to pay for it.

  263. It’s lovely! Anne over at Knitspot has a very pretty one, too, if you wish to try another pattern.

  264. Stephanie, it’s stunning. Absolutely beautiful. Can’t wait to try mine on… What? You’re not knitting one for me? Oh. Ok. I misunderstood. 😉 Gorgeous, though. Did I say that yet?

  265. That exact same cowl has been floating around in my head for months now (except mine is in a more deeper chocolate brown colour). I’ve been obsessing over cowls, and seeing yours makes me obsess even more.

  266. Truly a thing of beauty..I’d buy, donate or give my firstborn..for the pattern..it looks beautiful on you also~

  268. Oh, that is so Beautiful!!!!!!! Although I’m visualizing it as a scarf. Please, please, please think about making the pattern public. If you sell it, you’ll make some money for the truck repair ….
    God, that’s gorgeous. Must make.

  269. Ohhh, pretty, pretty, pretty…mmmmmmmmmm, me love! You’re a genius, that’s what! Enjoy wearing that lovely, warm goodness around your neck!

  270. I know this has become redundant. But are you seriously going to tease us with the finished product and then not follow through with a pattern??

  272. Dear Stephanie,
    For my last birthday my sister sent me a 25 gram skein of Qiviuq from the Yukon, which I have been hoarding & fondling until just the right pattern came along.
    If you won’t publish the pattern for your local fans, please – I beg you – think of the Qiviq!!
    Jan

  274. This may be just the thing for that ball of quiviut I brought back from Alaska. I would love to get my hands on the pattern, or are you just teasing us? Really, your cowl is absolutely gorgeous!

  277. I am *not* requesting the cowl pattern as I am not a lover of cowls – I live in Los Angeles – But I would like to know what you are doing with the leftovers. Such a wee amount of love to have sitting there.

  278. Oh. See, now that is what I’ve been trying to decide about making for weeks. I can see that in the skein of alpaca that’s been sitting in a silver bowl near the computer for a couple months now.
    All of this is to say… will you please share the pattern? Paid, even?

  279. That gorgeous cowl is amazing! I’m so jealous. You are an absolute genius, coming up with such a beautiful pattern that suits that yarn to a tee. Enjoy it! I wouldn’t object if you wanted to share the pattern either. 😉

  280. Stephanie, sweetie, that lovely cowl didn’t just design itself. You designed it. One who designs is a designer. You’ve designed many beautiful things. So what are you talking about, saying you’re not a designer? Yeah you are! Are too! Are!

  281. A LOVELY cowl! Light and snuggly looking too! I too would love to have access to the pattern! I’ve got stash that is perfect for this – and I’m snowed in for the weekend!

  282. Please post pattern – I’m in a serious knitting rut – and have a lot of angora that would make that pretty cowl, as well.
    Pretty please with sugar on top? Hmmmmmm?

  284. Oh, Steph – it is beautiful. I certainly hope you will share your pattern sometime, or publish it in your next book!

  286. Okay, you’ve got 285+ comments, almost all of whom beg for the pattern. You’d be insane not to write it up and sell it on Ravelry or Etsy. Here’s one big vote for sanity!

  287. It’s beautiful!
    But you do realise that everyone is going to hound you for the pattern 🙂

  289. Super cool! That cowl is beautiful. And in a weird way less than 6 degrees of separation thing… I’ve actually been to that farm, and spent a day combing goats for fun! Except it was a chilly day, so it wasn’t actually soooo much fun…

  291. Before I comment on your beautiful cowl, I would like to let you know that Alison Hyde is very ill…please stop by her blog and see.
    The cowl is stunningly beautiful. I love how BOTH edges do that scallop thing. Will you share the pattern?

  293. absolutely lovely. and being made out of that magic fiber known as mmmm cashmere, i can only imagine how soft and delicious it is to wear.

  294. May I add my name to the list of people calling for the pattern. (You might think of giving the pattern to Lettuce Knit and let them make some cash off of selling kits! I’d buy one!)
    I was surprised that you bought a front-loader. They do get clothes cleaner, and they are more efficient and they do use less water, but they don’t felt well. Myfanwe feels a little bad about our front loader now, though. Ours doesn’t play a song. It buzzes at us. It’s like an angry boarder.
    Anyway. Glad to see to see you are happy with Mr. Splashy and that you are no longer in danger of poo landing in your kitchen.

  295. Explique por favor cómo usted hizo eso!!
    I’m asking what everyone else is so I thought I’d have fun and ask in Spanish lol
    It really is beautiful! I’d splurge on my first cashmere just to knit that!!

  298. Your cowl is absolutely gorgeous!!!! I’d love to buy the pattern for it if you decide to write it up!!!

  300. I can just imagine how wonderful that feels against your neck. It looks so soft and warm and absolutely yummy. I don’t know many knitters that would part with a skein of cashmere, even for their best friend. You’re a lucky gal.

  301. We have the same cowl pattern in our heads! I’ve been searching for a cowl pattern for sometime. Are you going to post the pattern? pretty please, with sugar on top?

  302. Beautiful. Just Beautiful. This is what life is about. So nice to have a good override all that ‘bad’ Happiness to you!

  303. Need $$ for Knitters without Borders? Offer the pattern! PayPal, here I come! Por favor…….. pweeze, please? (asking nicely may get it on this blog by tomorrow?)
    ty ty,

  306. Your cowl is stunning and I too would gladly donate to Knitters without Borders for a copy of the pattern. I have some beautiful green cashmere that I have been saving for just this sort of thing. I am so glad that your cowl design came out just as you wanted it to!

  307. Breathlessly beautiful. Please make the pattern available. I would pay, maybe another fundraiser for DWB/MSF? I am cowl and cashmere obsessed.
    Julibeth
    Rhinebeck,NY

  308. Just lovely! You’re so clever – makes me want to cast on for my cowl right away (and mine won’t be nearly as gorgeous as yours…).

  313. Your family needs income.
    The knitters of the world need this pattern.
    Think: how could these two needs be met?
    You could sell this pattern for some modest sum.
    Do your part for the global economy, Stephanie!

  314. That is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a fair while…please share the pattern. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease? I think the fundraiser for MSF is a great idea. 🙂

  316. Hah! I’ll make you a trade. I have a handmade Yarn Harlot pottery pin from one of the north Idaho holiday craft bazaars. I will send it to you in exchange for a copy of the cowl pattern! In our present-day economy, barter is about all I can afford to do. (Good thing that I built up my stash in the days when my cash flow was better!)

  317. Yes, yes! It’s all those things and more! Will there be a pattern to share? I just happen to have some cashmere sitting around……

  318. How beautiful! It looks just like something my mom would love, and I have leftover cashmere from lining her selbuvotter. Please please please post the chart on Ravelry!

  319. That is gorgeous! And so much more convenient than a scarf, with those ends that must be constantly dealt with. I just have to add my voice to the chorus begging for a pattern.
    keep on purlin’, and yarn-overin’ 🙂

  320. That is gorgeous! And so much more convenient than a scarf, with those ends that must be constantly dealt with. I just have to add my voice to the chorus begging for a pattern. Pretty pretty please, for the pretty pretty thing?
    keep on purlin’, and yarn-overin’ 🙂

  321. OK, how many “pretty-please”s is it going to take to convince you that you need to share your pattern for the Pretty Thing? I can send you a few, and I am pretty sure that I can find more for you… 😉

  322. I haven’t been able to find “my” cowl either. A 20g cowl! I’ll buy the pattern if you put it up on Rav Ü

  323. Oh, such loveliness. You’ve made a beautiful, gorgeous bit of heaven to wear. It’s so lovely and fits you very well.

  324. I will join the chorus…pattern please! I’d happily donate to your kitchen fund AND Doctors Without Borders for that pattern. It’s a win win win situation!

  325. Steph, that cowl is a work of art. I only hope that you will post the pattern either on Ravelry or your blog, so that we can attempt to knit it as well.
    And I join the chorus and would happily donate to KWB or your kitchen fund for it!!!!
    What a wonderful way to start 2009, such a lovely little thing from a gorgeous Christmas present (and yes, I envy you a friend like that!)

  326. Ooooh! You’re cowl is so lovely! I hope you’re going to share the pattern. I would be happy to buy it and donate to the Pipe/Kitchen fund, MSF or whatever. That is so neat. It would definitely be a great pattern to have for next Christmas. I’d be able to give myself the gift of knitting with all that cashmere, and my friends and family would get the cowls as presents. Now that is definitely what I would call a win/win situation!

  327. Happy new year! That cowl has produced my first comment of 2009, I think. It is very beautiful and you are very talented(and you have a lovely friend). Would you like to share the love by passing on the pattern? And then we could share the love with MSF?

  328. Mooooiiii, which means whow, gorgeous. Who would have thought that narrow doorways, partly deconstructioning your kitchen and the farewell to Mister Washie would clear up your mind to create this beauty. Congratulations, at least one silver lining to those clouds.

  329. Mooooiiii, which means whow, gorgeous. Who would have thought that narrow doorways, partly deconstructioning your kitchen and the farewell to Mister Washie would clear up your mind to create this beauty. Congratulations, at least one silver lining to those clous.

  331. Well now I have an idea. How about offering your cowl pattern for a contribution to your Knitters Without Borders fundraiser? Sounds like a win-win to me.

  333. Well, let me join the chorus! Indeed, you *are* a designer – of beautiful blog entries, of written essays and books, of patterns, of inspiration to other knitters, of proactive involvement in worldly affairs (KSF), of hope! A truly beautiful piece of art/craft. I went immediately to knit visualizer (taking your hint, I think, that we can learn to do this for ourselves too) and then to the farm page for the yarn source. I love the way you connect us to local farms (and shops). Thank you!
    (And, certainly, we’d surpass the new KSF goal easily if the pattern were an (extra) inducement – much like the socks you showed us this summer with the pattern for sale in support of a entrant for the Princess Margaret walkathon for breast cancer research – I did go buy that pattern, then got a bit overwhelmed by the pattern so its in stash for now).

  334. Beautiful cowl! With the rest you could also try to make a pair matching fingerless mittens. And you’d likely still have enough left for another cowl.

  336. I have cashmere yarn from black sheep last year, and I have been either too afraid to use it or nothing has been “pretty enough” to use it on… but it’s about the same weight/yardage as yours, and thus I think a pretty cowl may indeed be what this fuzzy white yarn wants to be all grown up. Please share!

  337. This is soooo lovely. I second the motion that this pattern should be shared with the rest of the knitting world. And as for “that designer thing” – well, English isn’t my first language, so I may be on the wrong track here, but if thinking up something and making it come out exactly as you intended isn’t designing, then what is?

  339. Pretty enough to bring me out of lurkdom, and the perfect use for a yarn so soft it simply must be in skin contact. Lovely, lovely.

  340. That’s really beautiful, Steph! I know what you mean about the pattern in your head not being what comes off the needles… Kudos on this one!!

  343. Another voice added to the chorus of: “Please share this wonderful pattern so that we can all make cowls and sing your praises.” Donations to DWB as compensation is a lovely idea that I, too, would support.

  344. wow. this is beyond lovely. i would purchase a pattern if you were so inclined to share it with the rest of us. great work!
    Jen

  345. It’s lovely and perfect. Are you going to write up the pattern? You know, in your spare time.

  347. Whoa! It’s beautiful! I didn’t want to pile on, with all the comments, but the “cowls for all my friends” line cracked me up too much to leave alone!

  348. Pick me…pick me- I’m your friend and I want one!!!
    It will make up for the fact that the scarf I was designing for myself (yes myself) over Christmas, in almost the same colour as your cowl, is not working out the way I wanted it to…and I’m supposed to be a designer 😉
    BTW so glad that you don’t have any structural damage- I was sending you good vibes to that end.

  349. Still hoping pattern will appear in today’s blog. Storm coming to the NE of US, have yarn (not cashmere….. yet), needles, hmm…….. sounds like a winning combination to me! Lets see, at even $5 per pattern, with 300+ of us begging, pleading for the pattern….. it should cover at least part of the soil pipe and the new Sir Washie, right? Think of it……. you provide pattern, we give $$. Sounds like we’d be contributing to the GLOBAL economy, right? Pleaseeeeee………hurry! 🙂

  351. That is the best cowl I have ever seen. It is feminine without being prissy.
    I would definitely pay $5 for said pattern, as another blogger suggested.

  352. Please write this up! I have wanted to do a cowl for awhile and haven’t found the perfect one…you seem to have done it! Why not sell it to help fun the new stack???

  353. Can we say Twist Collective on your blog? I’d love buy the pattern. It’s gorgeous in a cool, subtle way.

  355. Perhaps the pattern could be made available as an incentive for donating to Doctors Without Borders. Not with a set amount, but rather with a “suggested” donation or just whatever people are able to give.

  356. A thing of extreme beauty! Way beyond my talent level but if that pattern came up online I would really try, and you would be responsible for taking my knitting ability up a few notches!

  358. On the off chance that you read all your comments, have you thought about selling your pattern as a download? I would love to buy it and make one too.
    Enjoy your blog!
    Joanna

  362. love love love it. I could start my Christmas knitting now – if I had the pattern. Please.

  363. SO – have all these people put their money where their mouth is.
    Make the pattern for SALE, with the proceeds given to MSF. That’s about 350 donations of $10 each in my book.

  364. Lovely!! I love how the yarn and the cowl came together. Maybe I’ll listen next time some cashmere throws itself off the shelf at me.

  365. This is beautiful – I would be very happy to pay for a pattern/make a donation to MSF if you were able to make your lovely pattern available. I can’t imagine how people come up with designs like this!

  366. I have a skein of Quivet just waiting for this pattern, will you share with us soon? It is just lovely.

  368. Pretty?? Nay…….SIMPLY GORGEOUS!!! You cannot say you are not a designer any more. This is the most beautiful, most luscious one I’ve seen! Wear it in good health…

  369. Wow, Stephanie, that is gorgeous. I’ve been thinking about trying a cowl, and yours is beautiful. I also haven’t tackled lace yet; if you publish that pattern somewheres, I may have to give it a try. And the yarn is loverly, too.

  372. Add me to the begging list. That pattern is absolutely gorgeous – I’d even pay $ for it. (not too many tho’ cuz I’ll be spending $$ on the cashmere :OD )

  374. Steph, that is flat-out lovely. If you draft out the pattern (you did, didn’t you? You could sell it … I would be proud to carry it in my shop.

  377. Chorus, throng, horde–whatever we call ourselves, at some point we will reach a tipping point, and you will be forced, by our sheer weight, to publish your pattern. Might I suggest sooner than later? By this point, sales could generate a whole community of houses with adequate soil pipes or a total end to medical need in the emerging world!

  378. brilliant design, classic. it reminds me of stained glass windows and chain mail (but of course softer) and the inside of sea shells. what a fine designing brain you have 🙂

  380. Oh my. I’m in lust. Total, knee-weak, drooling lust.
    I do hope you consider sharing the pattern with us…there’s this yarn, see, at my local fiber pusher, and I’ve been dying for an excuse to buy it, since it’s like $50 (US) for a skein…..

  381. *BEG* *BEG* *BEG*
    You simply MUST share your pattern. I HAVE to have that cowl!
    Lovely!
    Great job on the design!

  386. This is lovely! Of course, like the rest of the knitting universe, I’d love for you to share your pattern… but if that’s not going to happen, would you please share the pattern stitch(es) you used… and then maybe I could try to put them together in a similar fasion… (you could save me a lot of time by sharing the pattern, you know!)
    It is fabulous! What fun to have your mental image translate perfectly into the finished product!

  387. Lovely! It is the perfect choice. The way it lays against your shoulder is wonderful and so flattering. I’d be happy to pay for a download!

  388. So beautiful, it looks completely elegant, not at all princess like.
    OK I am a slow knitter, have two birthdays of friends coming up….one more plea for the pattern on Ravelry.

  389. I’d like to add my name to the petition list of people begging you to sell this pattern to raise funds for KWB!

  391. I for one would love the Harlot Without Borders Cowl pattern. I’m a little confused, though, because I can’t find the $5 donation button that links me to the pattern. A mere server problem, I’m sure. I assume you’ll have it fixed by next week.
    🙂

  398. Very pretty scarcely covers it – beautiful. And I 400th (ish) the plea to publish the pattern as a TSF fundraiser

  399. Very pretty design,even though you’re not a “designer”. Perhaps you will put up the pattern for sale as KWB fundraiser? It will sell like crazy, that’s for sure.

  400. it is just BEAUTIFUL! You’re right… it’s just feminine enough, without being over the top. I’m very hopeful that you’ll make the pattern available 🙂

  402. Oh please share/sell this pattern. I have been wanting to make a cowl just like this but I don’t have the patience to chart something out. I lurve this though!!!

  404. Its so pretty.
    Will you make me one with the leftovers or just give us the pattern?
    Pretty please with a cherry on top??

  409. Cowls for all your friends?
    Sell us the pattern and we’ll make them ourselves! I’m just saying!

  411. That cowl is gorgeous. I have the perfect yarn in my stash to make it, too. I think you’re selling your designer capabilities short. Just because you aren’t a prolific designer doesn’t NOT make you a designer. Think of all the wonderful one-hit wonder songs out there…just because the band made it big with only one hit, does that make them any less musicians? I don’t believe it does. And you’ve designed more than one hit in your career. Please think about publishing this pattern and charging for it…at $5 each, with your readership, you could probably pay off your recent renovations, or your new washer and dryer and have a chunk of change to donate to KWB. Just sayin’. I know I’d buy one. 🙂

  412. That is soooo pretty, please please consider writing it up – would be very happy to make a donation for it (KWB fund raiser ??)

  413. Many women and some men are taught to not give themselves credit for what we know and what we do, and then few others give us credit for our brains and work, either (except for holidays that are promoted by greeting card companies).
    Knitters knit. Writers write. Designers design. If you need others to dub you a designer, it’s been done here, but it may feel even better to cop to it for yourself.
    And I will be brat enough to say that your generosity and creativity are remarkable; you owe nothing to anyone. Whether you publish the pattern or not, you constantly encourage readers to value their abilities and creativity, which can not be weighed on the same monetary scale as washing machines.
    Your cowl is awe-inspiring.

  418. You could pay for the new washer and dryer and the other household repairs in just a few minutes, it seems…and give the excess to Doctors Without Borders! Just one question…not being totally familiar with cowls, I thought they were joined in a round…is it really just a tiny scarf? And how does it stay on?

  421. I’ll add my voice to the clamor for the pattern because I have the exact same problem you had: beautiful yarn (quiviut) that I wanted to knit into a cowl, but couldn’t find the pattern I could see in my head. Now I’ve seen it!

  422. Not a designer??!!! Girl, you are deluding yourself. Your “designs”–cowl, baby sweaters, etc.–are more than professional level. We are not worthy! Love the cowl. Enjoy it.

  423. Sadly, I have looked up every URL listed here for “Classics in Kroy” and they are ALL sold out. I even wrote Patons and asked them to reprint it. The power of the Harlot!
    And that cowl is unbelievably beautiful.

  425. Oh, and may I add – several people suggested as many as 300 or 350 people might buy the pattern if you publish.
    Not so! Double that, triple it, quadruple it!
    You are the woman who can sell out the world’s entire run of any yarn or pattern you mention! Within hours.
    Pretty, pretty please with whipped cream and sprinkles on top?

  426. Its after 9pm on Saturday evening. Knowing Harlot doesn’t usually post after 9pm, I must give a ‘:(‘ at this time. Steph, pls don’t disappoint your knitting buddies. I have needles and yarn ready, but no pattern. Hurry pls………

  427. As so many have asked already-Please, please, please pattern. Gotta run and see what the noise from the cat doings is.

  428. Your cowl is so beautiful. I would love to make it for my friends. Charge us for the pattern and we could all help you pay for the all the expenses you have had to endure.

  429. Beautiful-now cough up the pattern we all want to make one-or do you just want us to keep begging? How can I get any knitting done if I have to keep reading the comments? Thanks for sharing the photo and the delightful vignette….

  432. i have been wanting to knit my first cowl. no pattern i peruse on ravelry comes close to this. i thought by now i would see a link to the pattern. but since i dont, please please i BEG of you to make it available. and let us know, when , where, how, we can get it..BEAUUUUTIFUL…

  433. Comment number 5,466,211 says:
    I would love to purchase this as a pattern, and I think that 50% should go to Medecins Sans Frontieres and then 50% should go to all the craziness in the McPhee household these past few months.
    We beg. Please share the pattern and help with the economic downturn!

  434. the knit visualizer; how much did you pay it to make the pattern for you? no really what did you do? envision your stitches and put it in a visualizer? how does this knit visualizer work?

  436. Oh my. Beautiful.
    I too will toss in my “please”.
    My mother is not someone I regularly knit for, it’s not usually worth the effort for her pickiness… but this, this she would LOVE and I already know and have the perfect yarn for it!
    Please, please, please?

  437. Has anyone asked yet if you’ll be sharing this pretty thing? (looks at 400+ comments) Oh, maybe they have. I’ll donate to the “keep the house from crumbling around you” fund. Or the KWOB fund. Or any fund.
    You’re so right about searching high and low for the pattern that lives in your mind. It happens to me. And I generally assume that if it lives in my mind it must have visited someone else’s mind before me. It’s a happy thing to find out the first person wrote it down (well).

  439. That is so absolutely beautiful that I can’t even express it. Elegant and beautiful and so soft I can feel it from here. Well done and enjoy.

  441. I have some Buffalo yarn from Rhinbeck that’s been in my Stash. Please make the pattern available.

  442. It’s gorgeous. Please share your pattern (even for sale!) with us…. we all promise to say “Thanks, it’s by Stephanie” when we get the compliments. 🙂

  443. Your cowl is gorgeous! As someone who’s recently been hooked on cowls, I would love to have you share the pattern with us. Thanks!

  444. I smell some math coming on. If the 400 people who just asked for this pattern each paid you $5 for it… that’s $2,000. That’s a good way toward paying for the plumbing and appliance-related emergencies, no?
    You’re already a designer, and I think this is a good time to go pro.

  446. BELLO!..Just BEAUTIFUL! You’re a humble DESIGNER! Maybe you will have it in your heart to write up the pattern for all of us to knit while watching the snow storm here in the Northeast! How truly peaceful and relaxing that would be! Wishing you Joy in this New Year and much gratitude for all your inspirations! Gracias, Bruny.

  447. I went to the Roving Winds Farm website to satisfy my desire to be a shepherdess. Sounds like a wonderful operation full of hard work, with much thought put into the selection of breeds.
    Please do share the pattern, I did buy 2 oz of qiviut to spin.
    Thanks, Kelli

  448. Stephanie, please make the pattern available. I too would be very happy to either donate to Medecins sans frontieres for it or pay for the pattern so that the McPhee bills are not too onerous.
    I have never seen a lovlier pattern and it would make wonderful Christmas knitting for this year (my mom would love it).

  449. oh! just lovely. I hope you will make the pattern available – and I heartily endorse the idea of a fee to support Knitters without Borders.
    can’t wait to knit this one – I have a skein of quivet that was given to me as a Christmas present – and have been cuddling it and wondering what it wants to be in the end – and I think this is it!
    waiting anxiously
    Lea

  450. Hrmmmm. Over 400 comments on this posting about who will buy the pattern for your beautiful imaginings. I’m broke, but I’d buy the pattern too. Yep, you could make a killing.
    So…you’ve had 3 whole days….where’s the pattern!?! *I keed, I keed*
    I can wait until Monday…… 😉

  451. That is really pretty! Good work. You might not be a designer but you surely know how to design beautiful things – I haven’t forgotten those gorgeous baby jackets either:-)

  453. Me too, Me too. It’s Beautiful. Going to go thru the stash now looking for just the perfect yarn so when you get the pattern up I am ready to go. I would like mine a little bigger and droopier so it hangs farther down in the front.

  454. Many, many people would be willing to pay for this pattern. And if you don’t need the money (say, for home repair) you could always give it to KWB/TSF. Just sayin’. We would love to know how to create such beauty under whatever circumstances you see fit. (PleezePleezePleeze)

  455. PLEASE might you share the pattern!:) Pay or free I don’t care, I just want it. Cowls are good for the weather we have here, yet they are all too big for me, frumpy, too girly or just downright ugly. I love the color of yarn and this pattern. It’s what I’VE seen in MY head!:)

  456. It is truly spectacular…it is snowy and beautiful in Maine right now. Cashmere is the preferred way to travel. It is light, so so soft, and warm.
    No I do not sell cashmere, but I have friends that have a cashmere farm…perhaps you should contact them with your pattern.
    Thank you for sharing it with us.
    Bonnie

  457. Oh yes, please, the pattern! Even in my finicial woes I think I could find something to aquire this lovely thing. and I have the qiviut yarn my dear daughter brought me from Alaska. Perfect for it!! Please????

  460. I don’t know if you reply to these things or not, but I’m gonna try anyway.
    I too have naturally curly hair. And a big head. Add the two & you have, well hat, headband & cowl issues.
    My question (I assume of course that you have a big noggin’) how big do you need to make a cowl so that it passes over your head, without demolishing your hair and still sits nicely on your neck? As demonstrated in above pictures. Having to pin a 1 piece cowl sort of defeats the purpose to me . . and this . . this is freaking perfect!
    Cheers

  461. Oh, Stephanie, score!
    I’m with you, very rarely does reality ever come close to what I envision in my head.
    Usually, to my utter chagrin, reality bites. So congratulations on a well executed plan, it’s lovely, really.

  462. My god, isn’t that lovely! I’m yearning for the pattern … — and looking at the Roving Winds Farm’s Website – I must say that you have wonderful and generous friends!
    Lots of greetings from a fan of yours on the other side of the ocean – knitting away in Germany.

  463. I got that exact same skein of yarn for christmas too! Your cowl is lovely, its starting to get me thinking about what I will knit…

  464. My new roomate just can’t understand why I started screaming and freaking out when she tossed my most precious ball of yarn from the freezer in the kitchen to the middle of the living room floor! Please tell me that you understand and that I am not crazy!

  465. I know it’s a couple of days later since the posting, but would you please have the pattern published? You should get money for such a pretty little piece of fluff.

  467. Bizarre the way I was in the cowl mode when I read your post-I just finsished a bulky one of my own free form design (trust me-nowhere NEAR yours)in Blue Skys Alpaca and am not sure about the outcome. The gods of blocking better be with me. Anyway-my first thought was for you to have the pattern as a donation to KSF-and I just saw that others feel the same. Totally fabulous pattern-even if we have to buy it and then kick some cash to KSF, it would be more than worth it. Good way to start the New Year, just saying.

  469. I don’t know Steph, 468 people groveling for your pattern? You may have passed over that magical threshold into Designer Land.

  470. So if all the 470 people begging for that delicious cowl tuck five dollars in an envelope for the pattern that you e-mail back to them that means $2,350 towards household repairs. Time and intellectual property mean money. Now doesn’t that sound like a good idea? Do you have PO box? Please??

  471. PUUUULLLEEEZZZZZZ can you write up the pattern? It is so, so gorgeous and I’m dying to make one straight away – – I’m willing to pay $$$ for it.

  472. Please can you write up the pattern? It is so, so gorgeous and I’m dying to make one straight away – – I’m willing to pay $$$ for it.

  473. The cowl is beautiful please can you write up the pattern it is so georgeous you cannot show us something so nice and not! pretty please! willing to pay either to you or knitters without borders

  475. Dear Ms. McPhee:
    I’ve never posted a comment on your blog before because I’ve been entirely intimidated by the sheer number of comments that you receive and I, #1: doubt that you have the time to read all of the comments unless you give up knitting, and
    #2: didn’t want to add to the to the time needed to read comments in case you really do read them all.
    I’m not really posting a comment now, although I do LOVE the cowl and, just like 474 other people, hope that you will post the pattern. I writing to tell you about a coincidence that happened.
    I received a copy of one of your books for Christmas and took it with me as I accompanied my husband on a business trip weekend to a luxury hotel near the Atlanta Airport. Because it was Distaff Day weekend and I was giving up a spinning party with my local guild, I took my new travel wheel with me and spent part of the time watching a spectacular view of airplanes landing and taking off while I spun during my husband’s business meeting. It made me feel like I was part of a timeless, universal sisterhood of spinners. I also took a short break to read your story about the time you lost a ball of sock yarn in an elevator in which you were no longer riding…remember that one? I laughed at loud. The irony gods heard me.
    After my husband’s meeting, he invited me to join him in the hospitality room four floors below our room. I grabbed my handbag and a little drawstring bag which held my current knitting project, a chevron patterned scarf using two different colors of Jitterbug sock yarn (at $20.00 a skein!), along with a little booklet I was also reading about the history of spinning. When I reached the hospitality room, I politely visited with others for a moment or two, accepted a glass of wine and sat down. Everyone else, and their wives, were all engrossed in watching a football game on the big screen TV. Since I’m not an avid (or any other kind of) football fan, I reached for my knitting and discovered that my little drawstring bag held the small booklet on spinning history and NOTHING ELSE!
    I racked my brain. Had I knitted that afternoon and neglected to replace the project in the bag? No, I had spun and read all afternoon. Where was the yarn, needles and the almost finished scarf? I jumped up and grabbed the next elevator to the 7th floor. When I got out of the elevator and rounded the corner, I saw that someone had dropped a scarf on the floor. Then I noticed one Harmony straight knitting needle (which was also a Christmas present) sticking out of it. Then, I notice that two strands of yarn were stretched out leading a path down the hallway. I grabbed up my three fourths knitted scarf and one needle, and started gathering up yarn. I followed it down two hallways and retrieved the other needle along the way before I finally reached what was left in the two balls of yarn.
    So, I don’t know if I am luckier than you or jinxed by you. But my experience did prompt me to finally attempt a correspondence with you. I have enjoyed reading your books and your blog. You are inspiring millions of knitters to unite in public and I applaud you.

  476. I can’t get this design out of my head…!
    Seriously, I have been thinking about it all day. Add me to the chorus please.

  478. Oh, my goodness. I’m struck speechless. The cowl is ***so*** gorgeous. I’m hyperventilating.
    I want to add my name to the expanding list of –
    Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please?
    Just think of the donation total for KSF/MSF if you were to link a donation to acquisition of the pattern. Think of the good it would do for the whole world…
    dee near Berkeley

  479. i agree with dee near berkeley, which is exactly why i turned on my computer at this hour. i was going to propose all the procedes go to your causes, this would be a lovely gesture to all these gracious adorers – i am among them!!! i can’t wait to see whht results in 479 comments!!!

  480. Please publish the pattern! I have 25g of cashmere that I didn’t know what to do with and now this is all I want to knit! As many many others above have commented, this pattern would make a few $ for KWB/McPhee renovations!

  481. Your cowl is really gorgeous. The weather is freezing. Please, please, please share the pattern.

  482. Oh great. Now I have to knit a cowl! And I don’t have any cashmere! Hmmm…I do have some alpaca/silk top in the closet.
    I’m glad that your idea turned out so lovely! And the color is perfect for you :~)

  484. Yes to posting the pattern with a donation link. If for some reason you don’t want to share it, can you share what size your friend thinks a cowl should be.
    Don’t know if I told you I won one of the baskets from your visit to Knitwitz in Jacksonville, Florida. I think it is because I went in on the last day and donated the last ($16) of a credit I had to Doctors Without Borders. I wanted Kathe to be able to clear her books. She insisted that I take more coupons. So now I have some yummy yarn that would make a perfect cowl. Would be happy to donate again.

  486. Please, write up a pattern and sell it too! Just think of the remodeling you could do.
    I love it!

  487. Please, write up a pattern and sell it too! Just think of the remodeling you could do or the dent in the $1000000 for KWB!
    I love it!

  488. That pattern, that yarn gorgeous together. II would also like the pattern….unfortunately I will not be able to afford it.

  489. You are an inspiration to the designing knitter inside all of us, who wants to shine their light no matter how bright or how long the flame has been burning!

  491. Pattern… pretty please… I have a fabulous itty bitty skein of luxurious alpaca that would be so perfect for this pattern. I’ve been seaching cowl patterns for ages and well… this is the one. Please?

  492. Love the cowl. Have 2 suggestions for you (and I haven’t read all the previous comments to see if they’ve already been suggested).
    1) sell the pattern for a nominal fee and call it the cowly appliance/kitchen recovery fund.
    2) sell the pattern, with proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. You’d make lots of knitters happy to have the pattern, and be raising money for a great cause, which would make you & lots of other people happy to.
    You know, just in case you were caving to all the patterns pretty please pleas.

  494. Ack! The first time I saw it on Friday, I thought, how incredibly beautiful, I want one. I came back today to gaze on the beauty, and now all I see are centipedes. Ack!

  495. It is one of those types of patterns that the idea of casting on makes you feel like a child on Christmas morning! So excited!!! Please draft up that pattern – – it is so gorgeous.

  496. Beautiful pattern. My suggestion is to charge for it and call the pattern “New Washer and Dryer”.

  497. Seriously. With 500 comments, I would guesstimate about 450 of those are unique posters. Set up a Ravelry download (which you can use off-Rav, too), and charging a few dollars will certainly buy you some yarn! 😉
    $3 for the pattern will net around $1,350. $4 will net about $1,800. And $5 will rake in somewhere around $2,250.
    Srsly. What on earth are you waiting for??? I just wish I had your readership!

  499. I’m going to encourage the idea of selling the pattern with proceeds going to DWB. I knit a couple of cowls from a pattern found in “Knit 2 Together” by Tracy Ullman and her friend Mel, but I would like this one as well since the yarn is much finer. Very pretty, good for you! so talented.

  500. Beautiful cowl! I can’t wait to see the explosion of friends favoriting* this thing on Ravelry!
    *I’m trying to introduce this into the lexicon, a la kinnear. 🙂

  501. Oooh, that is beautiful! I’ve been thinking cowlish thoughts lately also…so you ARE going to share this pattern, yes? Pretty please with sock yarn on top?

  502. O.M.G. That is absolutely beautiful. Very, very clever of you to manage the ‘mind to needles’ trick. I wouldn’t know where to start.
    I’ll buy the pattern though 🙂

  504. My first comment EVER! This is one of the most beautiful knitted cowls I’ve seen – and I’ve been looking for just the perfect one. Please make the pattern available. I know at least 12 people in my group alone that would purchase it. Thank you for your inspirational books and blog.

  506. Lovely! Please share the pattern. Now, when will the suspense end about that beautiful pink reversible cabled scarf from last month?

  508. All I could do for the first few minutes after seeing “the cowl” was moon over it and moan softly. I think my heart slowed down a few beats…really.

  509. De-lurking to say, this is beautiful and the pattern is perfect! I wish I could touch it! Thank you for sharing. Hope we see this pattern in the future!

  514. I LOVE it! I just finished a lace scarf for my Mum’s birthday out of cashmere, and a cowl for my Mum-in-law our of Alpaca/silk!
    I would also love to have this pattern!

  518. Wow. I definitely want to be you when I grow up! Wonderful design Stephanie and gorgeous yarn (thank you friend Stephanie’s Friend!!).

  520. That is the most perfect cowl I have ever seen. I too have been looking for a pattern for one just like that. What I see in my head never, ever translates onto paper, let alone yarn.
    Dying for the pattern. Is it done yet? (lol)

  521. Gorgeous…and I SO want that pattern. I’ve been drooling since I saw the first teaser picture of it in progress.

  522. From Germany, and my first blog entry ever. My eyes bulge, and I am dying for the pattern! Oh yarnharlot, please listen to the pleas of the many and share the pattern with us! It’s intricate, beautiful and I can’t come up with another adjective in the English language to describe me feelings and my longing!!!

  523. Love it! Can I volunteer to be a test knitter? Pretty please? I’ll give up sleep and housework until I have it completed . . . and only break for childcare duties.

  524. Just started to tune in to your blog and love it!!! It is a great ending to a rough day at work.

  526. What a lovely creation! You should be so proud of yourself to design and knit such a beautiful cowl. Please add me to the list of the fellow knitters that would love for you to share the pattern so that we too can enjoy having our own beautiful cowl to keep us warm.

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