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  • Welcome!
    I'm Anne. I hand-dye yarn, make kits for knitters, and write words for the common good. I put fresh yarn in my shop most Sundays, in tandem with my Sunday newsletter.

  • Meet my beagle, Molly. She likes to steal yarn.

  • Christmastide cowl pattern

    Don't know what to do with all those mini-skeins from your holiday yarn calendar?

    May I suggest the Christmastide cowl? It's a gently shaped cowl knit in the round designed. The shaping makes the cowl stylishly drape just so, without any fussing. It uses six mini-skeins with pattern sections divided into 12 rounds for each day of Christmastide (the most festive days of the old Elizabethan calendar: December 25 to January 6). It has entertaining color and stitch changes on the itinerary for each day.

    With just an hour or two of knitting each evening during Christmastide, by the end of Twelfth Night, you’ll have a beautiful accessory for yourself and the deep satisfaction of knowing you slowed down and enjoyed the season.

    Construction: Christmastide is knit in the round and is gently shaped so that it is wider at the bottom and a bit narrower at the top, so that it sits around your neck in beautiful folds without fussing.

    Yarn requirements: Six 25g fingering weight mini-skeins (~100 yards each) in a coordinating set of colors, or one 100g skein of fingering weight yarn + one 25g mini-skein

    Size: 16.5 in inches tall and 21 inches circumference at the top and 28 inches circumference at the bottom.

    Skills needed: Straightforward to knit with simple lace, stripes, and texture, Christmastide is well within the skill range of a beginner and entertaining enough for intermediate knitters. You will need to be able to:

    • knit and purl
    • increase and decrease stitches
    • read a chart or follow written directions

    The pattern is both written and charted, and it has been tech-edited.

    Immediate download + Ravelry code: You will receive an immediate PDF download and, if you're in the US, I'll also mail you a keepsake postcard with a one-time use code to add the pattern to your Ravelry library.