Garter Stitch Bow Cowl

The Iron Craft challenge for this week was to make something cozy, and since I’m working on knitting a bunch of cowls for husband’s team for Christmas, I decided to consider one of them my challenge project.

This is a super easy knit even if you’re completely new to knitting because it’s all Garter Stitch. It’s knit flat and sewn up, and the loop is knit separately and then sewed on.

The beauty part is your seam doesn’t even have to be that pretty because you’re covering it up with the loop. Awesome, right?

I think it looks like a bow and it’s great worn over your shoulders as shown or more traditionally like a cowl.

(Forgive my craft fail in that you can totally see I haven’t woven in my ends yet. I do that all the time!)

What You’ll Need

• two skeins of Lion Brand Hometown (I used colorway Razorbacks, of course, which doesn’t seem to be made any more, alas), or 128 yards of super bulky yarn of your choice
• pair of size 13 US (9mm) knitting needles
• yarn needle

Gauge

Gauge is not all that critical for this project but I got 9 stitches and 20 rows in Garter Stitch.

Size

Finished cowl is 8.5 inches wide and about 28 inches around.

How to Knit a Garter Stitch Bow Cowl

I used just about every inch of yarn, so you might want to start by knitting the tab and then use the remaining yarn for the cowl.

In that case, cast on 4 and knit until piece is 9 inches long. Bind off and set aside.

To knit the cowl, cast on 20.

Knit until piece is about 28 inches long, or until you’re almost out of yarn.

Bind off. Sew the cast on and bound off edges together.

Loop the tab piece over the cowl where you sewed the seam and sew the cast on and bound off edges of that piece together as well, cinching the cowl up to form a bow shape. Now you’ve got a super cute garter stitch bow cowl.

Oh, and weave in your ends! Really.

Check out this project on Ravelry.