the pine bough cowl, a sweater for your neck

I was thrilled when my friend Cirilia Rose, creative director at Skacel Fiber Studio, asked me if I’d be interested in designing a pattern for Skacel’s newest yarn, Kenzie, a tweedy DK-weight wool-nylon-alpaca-angora-silk blend from New Zealand. I couldn’t help saying yes after she brought over a few sample balls in different colors, and I fell head over heels in love with this blue and green together (#1009 Oceania and #1007 Kiwifruit, respectively). I started swatching some of the stranded colorwork ideas I had bouncing around in my head, and landed on this diagonal pine bough motif. Trapped bar stripes break up the zig-zagging pine boughs that run the length of this oversized cowl. It’s large enough to wrap around your head twice to keep your neck nice and cozy, but it drapes nicely and really shows off the stitch pattern when simply worn down (in the January chill of Seattle, I have to admit my favorite way to wear it is doubled up – it’s so warm!). Pine Bough Cowl took seven 50g balls of Kenzie (four blue, three green), so it truly is a sweater for your neck.

Cirilia also designed two patterns for Kenzie, and we shot the mini-collection this past weekend in Ballard, my favorite neighborhood in Seattle. I modeled the Pine Bough Cowl, Cirilia is modeling her gorgeous Cedar Leaf Scarf (how good is that orange?!) and our friend Kathleen modeled Cirilia’s Tayberry Hat. We’re thrilled with how the collection turned out and I hope you like Kenzie as much as I do. The patterns are all free and are linked to their ravelry pages below.