Kismet Cowl by Rachel Illsley - a colourwork DK weight cowl from Rachel Illsley

Earlier this year we were very excited about the Kismet sweater by Rachel Illsley of Unwind Knitwear as it included our yarn, which is such an honour. Kismet is a colourwork sweater using four colours and small intricate patterns inspired by composer Alexis Ffrench. You can find the pattern for it sweater HERE. The sweater used Oakworth 4ply in Driftwood with three other 4ply/fingering weight yarns and so naturally we created yarn packs for it which you can find HERE. Our Oakworth 4ply yarn packs sold out but Milburn 4ply packs are still available now. This set is the closest colour match to the yarns in the original sample and is Milburn 4ply in Rust, Charcoal, Wicker and Steel. 

Following that, more recently Rachel announced a matching cowl design. Kismet Cowl is colourwork design in four colours of 4ply/fingering weight yarn held double using the same motif as the sweater. You can also use just DK yarn instead to get the gauge. Kismet Cowl is now available to buy HERE. 

For the sweater release we created a flickr album of the colour combinations we put together, which you can see HERE. As many of these combinations were in Milburn 4ply you could also use the same colours in Milburn DK. We have created a flickr album containing colour combinations suggestions for the cowl HERE. The album includes Milburn DK combinations as well as all the 4ply yarn combinations we put together for the sweater as they can be used held double.

The cowl pattern has several options: two constructions, three sizes and yarn requirements for both 4ply/fingering weight and DK yarn.

Yarn requirements

The three sizes in the pattern are Child (C), Adult 1 (A1) and Adult 2 (A2).
Finished measurements for the Cowl are 49, 54.5, 60cm / 19.75, 21.75, 24in circumference and 21, 25.5, 30cm / 8.5, 10.25, 12in height. 

The Tubular Cowl finished measurements are 48, 57, 57cm / 19, 22.75, 22.75in circumference and 16.5, 24.5, 27.5 cm / 6.5, 9.75, 11in height.

The tables below show the metres (M), yards (Y) and grams (G) for each size and design style.

If you use 4ply/fingering weight yarn, it will be held double throughout. Wind the yarn into two equal balls for each colour before starting to knit.  A single skein in each colour of hand dyed 4ply/fingering weight yarn will be sufficient to make either size/style. 

If using Milburn DK, the cowl can be made using one ball of each colour for all three sizes except A2 which requires an additional ball of C1. The child size of the Tubular Cowl uses one ball of each colour. Adult sizes require two balls each for C1 and C4. The above picture includes Milburn DK in Night Sky, Natural, Charcoal and Steel.

If you are using hand dyed DK weight yarn you will be able to make any size/either style using one 100g skein each of the four colours.

All sizes of the cowl can be made using a single ball of each colour of Milburn DK. Adult sizes of the Tubular Cowl will need a second ball each of C1 and C4. The set below consists of Milburn DK in Compost, Black Tulip, Azalea and Natural.