Building Bridges Cowl

Building Bridges Cowl

My main motivation for designing this cowl was simple: I felt plain, ugly, unadulterated guilt. After all, I've hardly changed direction with the seasons, and spring has definitely sprung. So I finally went to the yarn store and found a fiber a bit more appropriate for warmer weather, and came up with a design to match (speaking of the design, it's based on a bridge here in Zürich. Check out the pic below!). I also thought this design might be a nice candidate for the double-wrap for still-chilly days. Or crazy movie theater air conditioning, or the eventual advent of fall...

Yarn: Lang Yarns Riva (52% Cotton, 48% Acrylic; 115 yards [105 meters]/50 grams); # 0009 Rosa/Grau/Blau - three skeins, & scrap yarn (roughly 36" if you wanna get real precise) for holding provisional cast-on and live stitches on other end during blocking

A closer view of the pattern.
It looks like an x!

Needles: One pair of needles in size US 7; one pair of needles in size US 8 for provisional cast on

Notions: Tapestry needle, stitch marker

Gauge: 20 stitches = 4 inches in stockinette

Which brings us to the patterns! Using your size 8 needles, then, cast on 40 stitches provisionally. Transfer stitches to your size 7 needles and we'll move straight to the main pattern, for which you'll need the following notation:

rt (right twist): knit two together, leaving stitches on left-hand needle; next, insert right-hand needle from the front between the two stitches just knitted together, and knit the first stitch again.  Finally, slip both stitches from left-hand needle together

lt (left twist): with right-hand needle behind left-hand needle, skip one stitch and knit the second stitch in back loop; then insert right-hand needle into the backs of both stitches and k2tog-b (knit two together through back loops, inserting right needle from the right)

The bridge detail that inspired the pattern.
Pretty much it just looks like a bridge.

And once you've got that down, we'll continue as follows. As a little note here, I realize that this stitch pattern is absurdly long. I promise you that it's very intuitive nevertheless, and you will only need to reference it a few times at most after your first pattern repeat! :)

Rows 1, 3, 5... etc..., up through 39 (wrong side): k2, p36, k2

Row 2: k2, lt, k32, rt, k2

Row 4: k3, lt, k30, rt, k3

Row 6: k2, (lt) twice, k28, (rt) twice, k2

Row 8: k3, (lt) twice, k26, (rt) twice, k3

Row 10: k2, (lt) three times, k24, (rt) three times, k2

Row 12: k3, (lt) three times, k22, (rt) three times, k3

Row 14: k2, (lt) four times, k20, (rt) four times, k2

Row 16: k3, (lt) four times, k18, (rt) four times, k3

Row 18: k2, (lt) five times, k16, (rt) five times, k2

Row 20: k3, (lt) five times, k14, (rt) five times, k3

Row 22: k2, (lt) six times, k12, (rt) six times, k3

Row 24: k3, (lt) six times, k10, (rt) six times, k3

Row 26: k4, (lt) six times, k8, (rt) six times, k4

Row 28: k5, (lt) six times, k6, (rt) six times, k5

Row 30: k6, (lt) six times, k4, (rt) six times, k6

Row 32: k7, (lt) six times, k2, (rt) six times, k7

Row 34: k8, (lt) six times, (rt) six times, k8

Row 36: k9, (lt) six times, (rt) five times, k9

Row 38: k9, (rt) five times, k2, (lt) five times, k9

Row 40: k8, (rt) six times, (lt) six times, k8

Row 41: k2, p17, k2, p17, k2

Row 42: k7, (rt) six times, p2, (lt) six times, k7 

Row 43: k2, p16, k4, p16, k2 

Row 44: k6, (rt) six times, p4, (lt) six times, k6 

Row 45: k2, p15, k6, p15, k2

Row 46: k5, (rt) six times, p6, (lt) six times, k5

Row 47: k2, p14, k8, p14, k2

Row 48: k4, (rt) six times, p8, (lt) six times, k4

Row 49: k2, p13, k10, p13, k2

Row 50: k3, (rt) six times, p10, (lt) six times, k3

Row 51: k2, p12, k12, p12, k2

Row 52: k2, (rt) six times, p12, (lt) six times, k2

Row 53: k2, p11, k14, p11, k2

Row 54: k3, (rt) five times, p14, (lt) five times, k3

Row 55: k2, p10, k16, p10, k2 

Row 56: k2, (rt) five times, p16, (lt) five times, k2    

Row 57: k2, p9, k18, p9, k2

Row 58: k3, (rt) four times, p18, (lt) four times, k3

Row 59: k2, p8, k20, p8, k2

Row 60: k2, (rt) four times, p20, (lt) four times, k2 

Row 61: k2, p7, k22, p7, k2

Row 62: k3, (rt) three times, p22, (lt) three times, k3

Row 63: k2, p6, k24, k6, k2

Row 64: k2, (rt) three times, p24, (lt) three times, k2 

Row 65: k2, p5, k26, p5, k2

Row 66: k3, (rt) two times, p26, (lt) two times, k3

Row 67: k2, p4, k28, p4, k2

Row 68: k2, (rt) two times, p28, (lt) two times, k2

Row 69: k2, p3, k30, p3, k2

Row 70: k3, rt, p30, lt, k3

Row 71: k2, p2, k32, p2, k2

Row 72: k2, rt, p32, lt, k2

Row 73: k2, p1, k34, p1, k2

Row 74: knit

Knit rows 1 - 74 four times (the eagle-eyed among you might wonder why I didn't stop that fourth repeat at row 73, since we're about to graft. It's all a matter of running yarn placement, fyi!). Clip yarn tail, leaving a tail of roughly 3 - 4 feet for later grafting, and then use a tapestry needle to thread scrap yarn through live stitches to hold for blocking, and block flat. Finally, place each end of the cowl on each one of your size US 7 needles, and, using the Kitchener stitch, graft. Tuck in ends!