For Christmas, I made my sister and brother’s girlfriend cowls for presents. And I ended up falling in love with the yarn color of my sister’s scarf, so I decided I needed to make something for myself using that yarn. Here is the finished product.

I love the Purl Bee, and get a lot of project ideas from them. This was inspired by the Herringbone Cowl. I saw that post, and loved the size of the finished product. That is exactly what I wanted in my scarf.

It’s hard to see in the picture, but the beautiful wine color has really pretty contrasting blue threads throughout. I used Cascade Yarns Magnum. It’s a bulky yarn, two stitches per inch and size 15 needles recommended. I used size 17—I knit tight and wanted it a bit looser. The whole scarf took about two skeins. I used the remainder of the skein from my sister’s scarf (about 1/3 was left) and then 1.5 new skeins. I think it could be done in two.

I’m not that skilled of a knitter (again, I’m very beginner) and I had a specific yarn in mind, so I adapted the Herringbone Cowl project to fit my needs. Basically, I just borrowed the size. I cast on 28 stitches to make it 14 inches wide. I knitted one side and purled the other because I love the different textures it creates and wanted that to show up on my scarf, especially when it’s twisted and you can see both sides. So I knitted and purled…

…until it reached 58 inches, then cast off as normal. Then, using a needle, I stitched the ends of the scarf together to make a cowl. You can’t even see the seam when it’s on, and really can only just see it on the purl side of the scarf anyway. It worked way better than I thought, and I love the way it came out.