My lovely braided Pinterest hack cowl is complete, it worked out exactly as planned, and it has a name! When I put a shout out asking for a name I got quite a few interesting suggestions, but there was one that stood out and struck a chord with me… Thanks Eliza!
I think it really suits this project both in the way it looks and what it’s made of. Confluence is where two rivers meet, and this cowl is made with two different colours of River Washed yarn. It was the perfect name! Thankfully I can now stop calling this my “Pinterest Hack Project”, which was awful. If you read my previous post about it, you may remember the Pinterest post that inspired it. This is what I saw and what I was trying to recreate in knitting, the yellow and grey project in the middle.
As you can see, it came out perfectly! The only difference is that rather than keeping two strands of each colour for the non braided portion of the cowl, I merged the loop into one strand as I found it less bulky.
My Confluence Cowl is made with Scheepjes River Washed in colours Wheaton (950) and Ganges (945).
With the two strands it felt like I was wearing 16 turtlenecks, but once I got the size right with the single strands, it was perfect. I also used a larger needle size to keep the knitted fabric soft and fluid, as I knew that with a tighter gauge the braid would become a hard lump. I’m not one for tight or super bulky things around my neck, so I wanted to be sure it was squishy and loose enough to be wearable. This is why I left the braid loose and tacked it into place rather than wrapping it more times and creating a tighter braid, it just didn’t feel nice when worn if the braid was tighter.
This way it is soft, loose and totally wearable without a bulky feeling. I haven’t worn it out yet, just to try it on and test it out, but we’ve been getting some cold and snowy weather here in France, so I should still have plenty of opportunity before winter is over! I just have to polish up the pattern a bit, which I will post in the next week or so.
If you’d like to get prepared, here is what you will need:
Scheepjes River Washed
2x Balls Yarn A
2x Balls Yarn B
5mm DPN’s or 80cm circular needles for magic loop
Darning needle for assembly and weaving ends
UK and International customers can find River Washed at Woolwarehouse and Black Sheep Wools.
North American and International customers can get their hands on it via Knotty House.
In the Netherlands, Caro’s Atilier is stocked up and ready to go!
You can also ask your preferred Scheepjes retailer or find a shop near you!
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