Liberty Color Play

Did I show you this?  I don't think I did.

I cranked out a Splash of Color Cowl while I was away in February for a few days.  I needed a small, mindless airport project, and this was just the thing.

Classic Elite Liberty Wool is a machine washable multi-colored worsted wool that does some interesting things.  The colors change very gradually over the course of the ball, so you end up with a watercolor effect.  I found this terribly satisfying.  There isn't much repeat in each ball, so you don't really get stripes, and you can pick and choose your blending depending on which end of the ball you pull from.

I used the Brick Road colorway, #7863.  As you can see here, I chose to keep the pinks and purples in the center of the cowl and saved the browns and grays for the edges.  If I had started from the other end of my second ball, I would have ended up with a big swath of the golden brown in the middle, which I think would have been equally cool.

This cowl requires just two balls, but I feel like I would have been even happier with about 30% more width and a third ball.  Next time.  

If you choose to make the pattern as written, make sure you bind off as loosely as you possibly can, preferable with a larger needle.  I've had luck with the Decrease or Lace Bind Off, demonstrated here on Knitting Daily.  I wasn't thinking the first time around and ended up with a bound off edge that was so tight that I couldn't double wrap the cowl.  After unpicking it and redoing the bind off, it's much better.

We are part of a little subscription service from Classic Elite, so we receive two bags of each new color they release every month or so.  The two newest colorways are very springy, but we have a really great selection of almost all of their shades.

We have some of the solids, too.  They are lovely on their own, and really fabulous paired with the multis for some variegated stripes or colorwork like in Accents (#9166).

Zig Zag Tam, Photo from Classic Elite Yarns

If you like having some simple little knitted gifts on hand, you can't really beat this cowl.  Each colorway is so interesting, it is sure to please someone you know.  And for less than $20, you really can't go wrong, right?