Montrose cowl

Right after I finished knitting my Montrose Shawl, I started imagining ways to take advantage of all the things I loved best about it—stripes, plush garter stitch, more stripes, soft brioche, and did I mention stripes? —and make it a lighter, easy to wear little sister. Enter the Montrose cowl. 

Unlike her big sis, little cowl Montrose works up in superwash fingering- or sport-weight yarn. This makes the cowl version much more drapey than the original and makes it ideal for warmer-weather-wear. Add the effortless, “I just threw this on” energy of a bandana cowl and the stripes-on-stripes fun that Montrose is known for, and you’ll have a winner on your hands.

Don’t worry, I kept all the squishy, colorful fun of the shawl version. Speaking of color, for this sample I paired the bright, pink, red, and orange tones of Spincycle’s Dyed in the Wool in “Hotdish” with the chilly, cold-olive of Baby Cat Yarn’s fingering-weight “True Grime Enthusiast”. A retina-searing bright with a nearly neutral? Yes please!

Your options are limitless. Pair speckle neons with tonal pastels. Pick solids from two sides of the color wheel. Rock a low contrast grunge palette. Black and white could be quite striking. Stripe it how you like it!