cowl – Granary Knits

31 January 202631 January 2026

The Wheel

The Wheel of the Year encompasses the eight festivals of the Celtic and Pagan year. It begins with Samhain, the celebration of the ancestors in October/November, and ends with Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox or Harvest Home in the Northern Hemisphere. The year is a circle and also an infinite loop, and so for this my last celebratory pattern I have chosen the Möbius loop as a vehicle for a contemplative design and an adaptable accessory.

This design lends itself to three separate items of the same basic pattern: a headband, a cowl (either single- or double-wrap), and a shoulder-warming wrap in three sizes. To determine tension, I recommend making the headband in your desired yarn as your gauge swatch, before making the cowl or wrap; I found the Möbius shape to be stretchy and accommodating to many sizes, so the medium size headband actually fits a large adult head (snugly) as well as a child/teen, and uses surprisingly little yarn.

The pattern is a memorable sequence of stitches, rhythmic and contemplative. It can be knit in any weight of yarn; this pattern gives calculations for light fingering/sock, 4ply/fingering, DK, worsted, aran, and chunky weights. It uses Cat Bordhi’s Möbius cast on as its basis, and I strongly recommend watching her video for the technique.

Cat Bordhi’s Möbius cast on video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVnTda7F2V4

See the tables below for approximate yarn requirements and the circumferences achieved for each yarn weight.

The Wheel pattern is now available in The Granary Knits pattern stores on Ravelry and Payhip.

31 October 202431 October 2024

Samhain

Samhain (pronounced Sa-win, /ˈsɑːwɪn/) is the first of the Celtic/Pagan Sabbats or festivals in the great Wheel of the Year, ever turning. It is the celebration of Autumn’s End occurring on 31 October/1 November. The veil between the worlds is thin at this time, the year is dying.

Samhain is the name of a traditional Gaelic festival held around 1 November. The name and date were adopted by Wiccans for one of their four Greater Sabbats. It closely matches Halloween (31 October) and the two festivals are intertwined. For Wiccans, Samhain is a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died. Aligned with the contemporary observance of Halloween and Day of the Dead, in some traditions the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the Wheel by the festival of Beltane, which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.

Samhain is a time for bonfires, honouring the ancestors, and for contemplation when entering the quiet part of the year. A time when the earth sleeps and humans (and animals) need warmth and shelter. A snug triangular shawl or cowl will keep you warm until the year turns and the earth awakens.

My interpretation of Samhain is of simplicity. It can be made as a cowl, using a single precious skein of 4ply/fingering yarn, or as a shawl. It can be knit in any weight of yarn, and can be made as long as you wish. As befits the time of the year, it gives warmth where it is needed. I chose reds and oranges for my samples, as well as a light grey reminiscent of the mists of Autumn. It can be worn any way you like, casually tied or fastened with a favourite brooch or shawl pin.

It can be knit in any weight yarn, in any type of yarn, in one colour or two. It is a warm double-thickness fabric using an interesting construction, with a simple but effective shape.

Samhain is available as a pdf download from the Granary Knits Ravelry store and from the Payhip store.

20 June 201930 December 2021

Diagoniella Cowl Pattern Now Published

The textured design for this pattern sprang from my research into the fossils found at the Burgess Shale fossil site in Canada, a wealth of amazing plants and creatures which lived in the pre-Cambrian seas over 500 million years ago. Diagoniella was a protosponge, tubular in shape but with an intriguing diagonal skeletal structure which just cried out to be turned into knitting!

This cowl is designed to suit everyone. The textured pattern is understated but detailed enough to be interesting, and the deep moss ribbing ensures that cold winds are kept firmly away from the neck. It can easily be turned into a deeper cowl/snood by adding more vertical repeats of the pattern; it is written for knitting in the round. It was designed for someone who cannot tolerate wool next to the skin, and the yarn suggestions are both cotton blends that give excellent stitch definition. The cowl/snood can be knit in any DK weight yarn which has good stitch definition.

Instructions are given for three sizes, a short cowl 25 cm (approx. 10”) tall; a medium cowl 40 cm (approx. 15 ½”); and a snood 55 cm (approx. 21 ¾”).

The pattern is available in the Granary Knits Pattern Store.