Celine Cowlette | LIVE Tutorial with Jen Lucas

Hi, everyone, I'm Jen Lucas, managing editor of The Knitting Circle, and I wanna welcome you to today's live event. I'm super excited about this one. We're going to be making the Celine Cowlette, which is a beautiful cowl that looks kind of like a top-down triangle shawl, but it's actually joined in the round, you can see here on the back, and so you wear it like a cowl. So it's kind of like a combination of a shawlette and a cowl, so a cowlette. So before we get started, I just wanna remind everybody that we have a download to the pattern, which is free, in the chat where you're watching this. So be sure to download the pattern so you can follow along with me now. And then you can knit one for yourself after watching the video. And also, you can always come back and watch this video again later if you missed any steps, so that way, you can have one for yourself. So we're gonna get started with the materials that we're gonna need. And while I'm showing you the materials, don't forget that you have that chat box available for you. You can leave a comment, say hello, let us know where you're watching from, tell us what kinds of things you like to knit. And then if you have any questions along the way, don't forget to go ahead and leave those questions in the chat box. So now let's get to materials. So for this particular cowl, we're gonna use a worsted weight yarn, and we're gonna use the worsted weight yarn in three colors. And I have one of them here in a full skein. And so you're gonna wanna pick three different colors. And depending on your color A, your color B, and your color C, you're gonna need to have a different amount of yardage for each one, and that is listed in the pattern. In addition to that, you're going to need your knitting needles, of course. You're going to need a US size eight knitting needle or size to obtain gage. Now, I say that knowing that probably, like me, most of you wouldn't necessarily do a gauge swatch before starting something like an accessory, like a cowl or a shawl. But the size eight needle is what I use to get the gauge that's listed in the pattern. You're gonna wanna use a circular needle. A 24-inch circular needle is gonna work best for this project, and that's because we're gonna start out by working flat, and then we're gonna join in the round to make it a cowl. So a 16-inch circular will work, although your stitches are gonna end up getting pretty cramped on the needle. 24-inch is what I used, and that was just about perfect. You could go up to a 32-inch circular if you wanted to, but at the beginning of joining in the round, the stitches are probably gonna be a little too spread out on the needle if you're using a 32-inch circular. So you really wanna try to stick with that 24-inch circular. Also, if you're comfortable using magic loop or something like that to knit in the round, you absolutely could have an even longer circular needle. But a 24-inch circular is what I used here. In addition to that, you're also gonna need just a spare needle. The size isn't that important. We're just gonna be binding off just a small amount of stitches with it. But we do need a spare needle to do that 'cause we're gonna be doing a three-needle bind off. I just grabbed one that's in the ballpark of what I'm using. So you know, a seven, eight, nine, that'll be fine just for the few little stitches that we're binding off. You're gonna need some stitch markers. We need four stitch markers to knit this pattern, but you might wanna actually have five or six. So at the beginning, I like to have all my stitch markers be the same color, but when we join in the round, I like to take one of those markers and change it to a different color so I know that that marker's the beginning of my round. And you'll see that when we get to that part of the pattern. And then you'll just need sort of your normal finishing supplies. You're gonna need, you know, your tapestry needle, your scissors, and any blocking supplies. And I'll talk about blocking at the end, too, if you're curious about that. And so while everyone's saying hello, I'm gonna go ahead and get started. Let's first talk about the construction. We've got Amy from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada here, hello. So to knit this, I actually have this now turned upside down on purpose. So what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna be starting here and knitting this way. So as you're knitting, you're kind of looking at it this way, so that's why I'm turning it upside down for you now. So we're gonna start here with the garter tab cast on, and we're gonna work our way out, back and forth in rows. And we're gonna do some increasing here. And we get this nice line down the center, and we get this by doing make one rights and make one lefts on either side of a center stitch. And then once we work sort of this whole first color, color A, flat, then we're going to join it in the round, and I'll turn it around here 'cause this is where I joined. So I joined right here, and then we start working in the round. So then from this point to the end, we have worked all of this in the round. So I really love this particular type of project because I'm someone that started out knitting shawls, and it was maybe about 10 or 15 years ago when the small fingering weight shawls were very popular. And I actually wrote a book called "Sock-Yarn Shawls," so I knit a lot of these small shawls. But the small one-skein shawl sometimes, they're a little bit, in my opinion, hard to wear. When you're talking about something that's like a 400-yard fingering weight shawl or even like a worsted weight shawl that's on on the smaller side, sometimes they're hard to wear. For my body type, I just never really could get it to stay on or just really look good. So that's why I love this cowlette 'cause it's basically a small shawl, or shawlette, that we've turned into a cowl. So that is a cowlette, and that is what we are gonna be making. So let's see, Sandy from Oregon asked if I will please put it on. Yes, I will. I will just do that quickly. But then I'm gonna take it off, just so it's not covering my mic. So there you go. So you can see it's just the long part hangs in the front, and then it's just in the back. I just have it bunched up. So it's really, really cute. And you can really, once we've worked through all of these, you can take almost any top-down triangle shawl pattern and turn it into a cowlette like this. So let's see, Emily is saying, "Hello from Maine. I'm new to The Knitting Circle. I've been knitting for 20 years." You love knitting, scarfs, cowls, dish cloths, hats. Oh, the pattern's beautiful, and you look forward to starting it. Okay, great. Yes, and we're gonna do lace. I'm gonna talk about knitting from a lace chart, but I'm also gonna talk about not working from the lace chart. So the written instructions are included for the lace charts, I guess, is what I'm trying to say there. So okay, let's go ahead and get started. So I'm gonna kind of do a different color combo for my little samples. And I'm gonna be knitting this just on a much smaller scale as we're going. But I'm gonna show you all the steps because, obviously, as we get going, there ends up being a lot of stitches on the needle. So I'm gonna knit this on a smaller scale, but I'm gonna show you all the steps that you need to know. So to get started, we're gonna start with a garter tab cast on. And the reason I like the garter tab cast on is because it creates a nice continuous edge. So if we look right here, so here was my garter tab cast on, right, right there. And then we start working back and forth in rows, and we're increasing and working this way, this way, this way, out, out, out, out, out. So by starting with this garter tab edge, it creates, basically, a continuous edge. I mean, if you're looking at it close, yes, you can see maybe a little difference that's making it not completely continuous right here, but it's more or less continuous. So I wanna start by saying, I'm gonna show you this garter tab cast on, but if I show you this and you re-watch the video later, and we also have a video for it on The Knitting Circle website just for the garter tab cast on. If you do it and you're like, "This is too fiddly, I don't like it," hey, this is your cowlette, it needs to make you happy. So you also could just cast on nine stitches using whatever cast on method you want. The only thing is if you do just cast on nine stitches, you won't have that nice continuous edge here. Now, you could sort of fold it up and sort of whip stitch it together to make it look a little more continuous. So that is an option for you. But I wanna show you the garter tab because I like to use it for just about everything. Let's see, oh, and Jennifer says, "I feel like I could make a full-size shawl from this." Yes, that's actually really interesting. So like I said, you could take a triangle shawl and turn it into a cowlette. You know, if you're comfortable with manipulating knitting patterns yourself, you really could take a lot of cowlette patterns that have this shape and then turn them into a shawl because basically, and you'll see when I show you the chart, we're gonna be working in the round, but you could just work back and forth in rows. And the other thing about this particular cowlette is I have knit it to this size. So there's two charts, just so that the chart wouldn't be so huge. So this is chart A, chart B, and then chart A again. But basically, you can keep repeating the charts as long as you want. So whether you are gonna do it as a cowlette, like I have here, or you're gonna, you know, change the pattern up and figure out how you wanna work it back and forth in rows to make a shawl, just know that as long as you're going chart A, chart B, chart A, chart B, and then working these ridges in between, which are in the pattern, you can make this as big as you want. I mean, you could make this into, like, I mean, you could make it as big as you want to. So the only thing is that you just have to keep in mind with the cowlette is that in the back, it is gonna be shorter in the back. So that's just something to keep in mind that this might start to get a little bunchy in the back if you're thinking about sticking it into a coat, if you're gonna make it huge, huge. But yeah, it's your shawl, it's your cowlette. You should make it however it's gonna make you happy. Okay, so now let's finally get to this garter tab. So to start, I'm gonna start by casting on three stitches. And the cast on for this does not really matter. I'm just gonna use a longtail cast on. You could use a knitted cast on. The only one I don't really recommend is a backwards loop or backwards E, cursive E cast on. That one's just, in my opinion, a little loose. So I wouldn't recommend that one. I'm just gonna do a longtail. So I've started by putting a slip knot on the needle, and then I'm just gonna cast on two more. So my slip knot counts as a stitch. So I have three stitches there, and now I'm just gonna knit seven rows. So I'm just turning it around and knitting. So we're just gonna knit seven rows. And this is a little bit turning back and forth at the beginning, which is a little annoying, but I think it's worth the effort with this garter tab cast on. Once I learned this, I never looked back, so I really loved the little, it just really makes the top edge of your shawl look really clean. So I think that was three, and now we have four, five, and two more to go. And just keep in mind, I knit with the yarn in my right hand. I'm a thrower, or I knit in the English style, but if you knit continental with the yarn in your left hand, that's fine, too. All the stitches are the same, you know. You're just doing knits and purls and all that. So just keep that in mind. Okay, so I have my seven rows. Okay, let me just move this yarn over here. So now to do the garter tab cast on, we have to turn the work 90 degrees clockwise and then pick up and knit in the left edge. So we're gonna turn, and now we're gonna pick up and knit three stitches along this edge. Now, on this edge, it's pretty easy because we have these sort of garter ridges that we made by just knitting. So you could take your right-hand needle and, you know, stick it into the stitch and then knit it. That's way too fiddly for me. On the worsted weight, it's not so bad, but I do this technique a lot on thinner yarns, and it's a real pain. And so what I like to do is actually take my left-hand needle, and from left to right, I just slide my stitches, or I slide my needle right through those three stitches. And I go into the garter bumps, just 'cause that's the way I learned it. That's the way I always do it. Some people like to pick up in between the bumps. They think that has a cleaner look. In my opinion, it's the top of your piece, and if somebody's looking at it that close and commenting on it, they're standing too close to you. So you could also do this and pick up in the ridges in between. But I like to go just right into those big bumps 'cause it's so obvious where you should pick up those three stitches. So again, from left to right, I just slid my stitch, or my needle through my stitches, and then I'm just gonna knit them. So now I have six stitches on the needle. Now I need to turn one more time, 90 degrees. And now we need to pick up and knit three stitches in the cast on edge. Now, unfortunately, it's not as clear in the cast on edge where you need to pick up. I always tell people just grab three loops. You could fiddle and start with a provisional cast on, or, you know, play around with a different cast on you know, at the beginning to see what works best for you. But I just find if I just pick up three loops across, and I just do the same thing, I'm just picking up loops from left to right, so I have three on the needle. And this can be a little bit tight, so you can see on my needle it's pretty tight. I don't normally like having stitches this tight on my needle, but I'm just gonna work it, and I am working at the tip right now. But notice as I'm completing that stitch, I'm bringing it up onto the fattest part of my needle in order to make sure I'm making the stitch the right size. So that's the garter tab. And again, this is something where you can come back and watch this again or check out our video on The Knitting Circle of the garter tab cast on where I show you how to do that. So that's the garter tab cast on. And a lot of people look at this, and they're like, "I don't understand because everything's bunched up on the needles." But you'll see, as we go along, how this starts to build out. So now that finishes a right side row. So we're gonna turn this around and work one set-up row. And the set-up row for this is pretty easy. We're just gonna knit three stitches, purl three stitches, and then knit three stitches. So just as a reminder, when you're switching from knit to purl or purl to knit, we wanna make sure that we're bringing the yarn in between the needles and not over the needle and creating a yarn over. So I had been purling, so I'm gonna bring it in between the needles to the back and then knit those last three stitches. Okay, so that takes care of the set-up row, and now we're ready to start working the actual stockinette stitch part of the pattern. So if we just take another look at this. And again, I'm flipping it upside down because I feel like this is the direction we're knitting it. So we've basically just completed this little part here, and now we're gonna just start working out like this. So we're gonna put some stitch markers in to help us. I'm not someone that uses a lot of stitch markers, but in this case, I do find it helpful, and especially because the particular increases that I'm using for this cowlette pattern are make one rights and make one lefts. And so sometimes, in my opinion, it's not as obvious where the increases are gonna go. So I'll be honest, when I am knitting a shawl that has yarn overs for my increases, I don't always place these markers because I just find, like, I can read my knitting and see where the yarn overs are. But in this particular case, I do find that it is helpful to have those markers because you do have a more solid fabric, due to the type of increase we're gonna use. So I'm just using these locking stitch markers. These are my favorite kind, just like the plastic ones that look like a coilless safety pin. So let's go ahead and get started. So we're going to knit three stitches, and that's gonna be one of our garter stitch edges. We're gonna place a marker. Now we're gonna do a make one right. And this first row it's a little bit trickier, just because, you know, we're coming off of where we were just knitting on the side of this fabric. But I'll do a few rows so you can see this multiple times. So to do a make one right, we're gonna take our left-hand needle, and we're going to pick up the bar in between the two stitches, so between this stitch over here and this stitch over here. And I'm just gonna pick up one of these bars, and I'm gonna pick it up from back to front and then knit it. And that's a make one right. I'm gonna knit one. Now I'm gonna do another make one right. And so I'm gonna pick up that bar with my left needle, pick it up from back to front, and then knit it. Okay, we're gonna place another marker. Now we're gonna knit a stitch. The stitch here is gonna be our center stitch. We're gonna place another marker. At this center, we'll always only have one stitch between these markers. Now, on this side, we're gonna do a make one left. So to make one left, we're going to, again, pick up the bar. Amy just asked if I, she asked if I said the stitch markers look like a toilet seat. No, they're like a coilless safety pin. So that's what I said, coilless safety pin. And so make one left, we're going to pick up the bar in between the strands from front to back with our left needle. Here we go, splitting the yarn just a little bit there. And then we're gonna knit through the back loop. So we're gonna have to knit through the back of it. And I'm gonna do this a few more times, so you'll be able to see it again. Knit one, make one left, left-hand needle. We're gonna go and pick up the bar in between the stitches from front to back, just like that. Knit and place one more marker, which now, thanks to Amy, I will be probably calling them toilet seat markers for the rest of my life. And then knit three. Okay, so that was our first row. Okay, now, row two is gonna be the same for this whole part where we're working back and forth in rows, and that's gonna be knit three, purl to the last three stitches. So you're just slipping the stitch markers as you come to them. So I'm just purling. And then to slip my marker, I'm just going to slip it purlwise. So I'm just slipping it from one tip to the other. Emily would like to know if TKC has videos for the make one left and make one right technique. And yes, we absolutely do. I made a video that shows you just a generic make one, and then there's another video that will show you, specifically, make one left and make one right and how they compare. So I believe on our website, there's a whole section, I think, on increasing or shaping. So if you click through the menu on there or if you just go into the search bar and type make one left or type in make one right, you'll find it. So I'm gonna continue to purl to the last three stitches, slip my marker, and then knit three. So our first three and last three stitches are always gonna be knit on both the right and wrong side while we're doing this part flat. And then everything in the middle, between on the wrong sides will be purling. So let's do another row 'cause now you're just going to be repeating this, repeating this, repeating this for the specified amount of times in the pattern. So again, we're gonna knit three, slip the marker, and then make one right. So again, to make one right, we're gonna take our left-hand needle, go underneath the bar between the two stitches from back to front, and then knit it. And now, how I remember this with the make ones, 'cause it is kind of confusing, and I don't remember where I learned this. So if anybody took a class and remembers learning this, too, absolutely let me know 'cause I cannot remember where I learned this. For make one right, I always remember it as I'll be right back. So you go with the left needle from back to front. I'll be right back. And then we're slipping the marker, just knitting one, always making sure that we just have one stitch in between those markers. Now we're gonna do the make one lefts. So the make one left, we're taking our left-hand needle, and we're going underneath the bar from front to back. And then that one you have to knit through the back loop. But the way that I remember this is I left the front door open. So we're gonna make one left. We're gonna take our left-hand needle, make one left. We're inserting under the bar from front to back. So that's how I remember it. Make one right, I'll be right back. You have to insert your needle from the back first, from back to front. Make one left, I left the front door open. You're gonna insert your left-hand needle from front to back. And I'm almost positive I explained that in the make one right, make one left video, too, 'cause anytime I'm talking about these make one increases, I always try to share that pneumonic device, because like I said, I can't remember where I learned it, but it's been very helpful to my knitting over the years. So let's just do one more wrong side row here. So again, knitting three and then purling to the last three stitches. Okay, Charlotte says, "Patty Lyons used that phrase in her cable class," so that's great. I don't think I learned it from Patty Lyons, so I must have learned it from somebody who learned it from Patty Lyons 'cause I don't think I've ever taken a class with Patty Lyons. Well, wherever I learned it from probably came from her first, right? Because Patty Lyons knows a lot about knitting. She knows all the tips and tricks. Okay, so let's just take a look at this little swatch here. So basically going forward for the specified numbers of rows, and I'm gonna bring this down here and set this on here 'cause I think that this will be a little, my pink's kind of blending into the way a little bit. So basically what you're gonna be doing, on right side rows, you're gonna knit three, slip your marker, do a make one right, knit to the next marker, make one right. So you've increasing this little, we're basically making a little triangle. You're increasing on right side rows by two stitches. You're gonna do your make one right here and then another one right here, gonna slip our marker, knit one. Again, one stitch in the center. This is something that always trips people up, more so when there's yarn overs 'cause the yarn over can kind of slip over your stitch marker. But that's a really good way to check yourself. Just make sure you always only have one. It's the center stitch, so there should only be one center stitch in this case. Then you'll slip your marker again. Then you're gonna make one left, knit to the last three stitches, or knit to the last marker and make one left again. So every right side row, we're increasing by four stitches total. You're doing two make one rights here, kind of at the start and end of this little wedge, and then your make one lefts will be at the start and end of this little wedge, okay? Now, I talked about the center stitch and about making sure only one center stitch stays in there. And now, I am someone that does not like to rip out my knitting when I've made a mistake. I will always try to just fix it and move on. The center stitch on these types of projects is probably, for me, that's kind of an exception for me. If that center stitch gets messed up. To me, it is a mistake in your project that is very noticeable. And I mean, again, it's personal preference. If it doesn't bother you, then don't worry about it. But for me, I knit a shawl years and years ago, and it had yarn overs on either side of the center stitch. And I messed it up, and I tried to fix it, but I didn't fix it right. And when I got done with that shawl, my eye went right to where I had messed up that center stitch. So the center stitch on something like this is, like, for me, personally, that's one place where if I've made a mistake, I might go back and actually rip out my knitting and fix it or, you know, drop down some stitches and actually fix it, just because I do think that this, here, is such, like, sort of almost like a striking detail that I feel like if this somehow got messed up and then, like, all of a sudden it was over here a little bit, I do think that maybe even a non-knitter would notice it. But again, if that doesn't bother you, don't worry about anything I'm saying. But that's just as far as mistakes go in this first little part. That would just be the one thing I'd really keep my eye out for is just make sure that your center stitch is just looking nice and straight and just going right down the center. Let's see here. Emily says, "The first video I watched from The Knitting Circle was on beading," that's great. Could beading be incorporated into this pattern? Absolutely. The awesome thing about adding beads to your knitting is you can add them to pretty much any project you want. I mean, obviously it's more practical to add beads in some patterns than it is others. But when it comes to shawls or cowls or things like that, absolutely. For me, personally, I would probably add them in the lace pattern. And if I was adding beads, I would be using the method with the crochet hook, where I'd be adding the beads as I go, since, you know, this particular pattern isn't written for beads, so I can't really tell you how many beads you're gonna use. So it'd be kind of hard to pre-string your beads first and then knit. So I would probably add them as I go. But we have videos, well, you already watched a beading video, but we do have a few beading videos on The Knitting Circle, and we'll show you both how to add them, pre-string them, and then using the crochet hook like I talked about. But I would probably, like, add them somewhere in this lace pattern. I think it might even be nice if you added them on the center stitch. Maybe not, like, every center stitch add a bead, but maybe if you did, I don't know, every four or six or eight rows, that might look nice there. I love adding, also, beads in, like, right along the edge as you're binding off. That could be really lovely, too. So yes, absolutely, add as many beads as you want, for sure. You definitely could do that with this project. We are using a worsted weight yarn here, so you just wanna take that into consideration when adding beads 'cause a lot of projects, not every project, obviously, but a lot of projects that do use beads when it comes to shawls and things, they're usually a lighter, like a fingering weight yarn. But yeah, absolutely. Go for it, add those beads. So you're gonna keep working back and forth in rows as the pattern indicates. And then at some point, you're gonna stop, and we're gonna join in the round. And so you'll just follow your pattern to that point, but you're just basically working those same two rows over and over and over again until you have this whole thing is worked flat. So you would just be working these two rows to this point, and now we're gonna join in the round and then start adding this in. Oh, let's see. Oh, yes, other people were thinking about adding beads, so awesome. Yes, please add the beads. And if you add the beads, and even if you don't add the beads, if you knit this, you absolutely should be tagging us on social media. We love seeing the projects that you're making. And also on The Knitting Circle, we actually have a project gallery, and I love checking the project gallery and seeing what everybody's making. So you can also upload your picture there, as well, even if it's just in progress, even if you just pick what beads you're going to use for this project, feel free to just, you know, in our project gallery, you can even just share a picture of the yarn you're gonna use and the beads. I'd love to see it. So once we have our rows worked, as I said, I just have a little swatch here so you don't have to watch me knit hundreds of stitches at a time. Now we're ready to join in the round. So to join in the round, what we're gonna do is we're going to fold this up with our right sides together. So for our stockinette stitch, we have the knit stitch, this is our right side. And you might even find it helpful, let me get a different color here. Now that I'm gonna be joining in the round, this is less important. But as you're working this flat, if you're having a hard time keeping track of which side is the right side or the wrong side, I, in most projects, always will use one of these stitch markers to mark the right side of my project. It just helps me keep my place. So now we're gonna fold it with right sides together, and I'm gonna grab that spare needle. And we're gonna do a three-needle bind off. We kind of have a pretty big needle here, but that's okay. We're gonna roll with it. Okay, so now we're going to basically do a three-needle bind off to start attaching sort of our garter tab edge here, or garter stitch edge together, and then we're gonna work in the round. So to do the three-needle bind off, which we also have a standalone video for on The Knitting Circle if you need a refresher, or you could watch this video again. We're going to insert our spare needle into the first stitch as if to knit. You know what, this needle is a little too big, actually. It's a little tight. I'm gonna just grab a different one. Here we go. We're gonna go into the first stitch as if to knit, second stitch. So I went through a stitch on the front needle, stitch on the back needle. And basically, now you're kind of knitting them to, you're not kind of knitting them together, you are knitting them together. You're gonna knit them as if they're a single stitch and drop them off, just like that. And we're gonna do the same thing again. We're gonna go into the stitch on the front as if to knit, into the stitch on the back needle as if to knit, wrap our yarn around to knit, and then we're just pulling that through onto our spare needle and then dropping those off. Now it's just a standard bind off. This takes a little practice. You might find it easier to use the back needle or the front needle. I think I usually use the back needle. Let's see. Yep, I use the back needle to do my bind off. And then we're gonna do that one more time. We're gonna go through the front stitch, back stitch, knit them together, and then bind off. Okay, so that's it. That's it for our three-needle bind off. And now we're ready to, well, basically we've set it up to join in the round. So now we just have to turn this back the right way so our right side's facing out, right? Because when we're knitting in the round, not in every case, but in most cases, you want your right side facing out towards you. And then we're going to take our spare needle, and we can just slide our stitch, right there, onto our right needle. Let's see, let me just make sure that's right. Yep, remaining stitch on right-hand needle. So now this stitch marker, right here, we really do need to still have a stitch marker here. Well, for a couple reasons. One, we're still gonna be doing some increasing as we're working in the round, but this stitch marker now is the beginning of our round. So that's why I was saying at the beginning that I like to actually have another stitch marker of a different color available. So then I'm just gonna take this one off and then stick this one on. And really, I can just put this onto the right needle because now I am joined in the round, so you can see there. I'll bring this back in here. There we go. So we've joined in the round. So now that we've done that, we're going to actually attach our color B. So like I said, I mixed up the colors on the sample, just so you could sort of see a different combo. But whatever you've designated as color B, we're gonna just join that into our knitting. So for my color B, I think I'm gonna use the darker one now for my color B to do the garter ridges. And so by garter ridges, I mean just this little, right here. So we're gonna do that in the darker color, 'cause why not? Okay, so joining a new color, I've got a lot of yarn hanging down here. Okay, there we go. For joining a new color, there's a number of different ways you can do this. Basically, the easiest way is you just drop the old color, and you pick up the new color. And that's definitely valid and a great way to do it. Even though we're gonna be, I'm actually gonna cut my color A, I like to, actually, when I'm joining a new color, I take my old color and my new color. So I have my working yarn, which was my light pink. And then I leave a tail of my new color, and I like to just knit them actually, like, together like that, just like that. So for this, we need to do a make one right first. So we're gonna do our make one right. And so in this case, 'cause I'm starting with the make one right, I'll just do it with both colors held together and then maybe even knit another stitch together with the same color and then drop the old one. So I usually, in most cases, not every case, but a lot of cases, I will knit a couple stitches with my old and new held together. You really, in most cases, can't even tell that those were held together. Okay, so we did our make one right. And then now we are going to just knit along. So, oh, wait, no, oh, I'm knitting with the tail. There we go. So I've got my working yarn color B. And this sometimes can loosen up a little bit. You might need to tug on these a little bit sort of to tighten everything up as you go, and that's okay. And then we're just gonna start knitting. And so I'm just going to knit a round. And so now I'm doing that garter stitch stripe. So our first round, we're still basically just doing the same thing we were doing while working flat. We're just knitting to the marker, doing our make ones, and then I'll just keep working. And then once we're done with that, we will work our next round. For this particular project, I did cut the yarns. I actually do prefer, you can carry the yarns if you want on the inside of your project. And that's great. If you like that technique, that's fine. Even though it's more ends to weave in, I actually like to cut my colors in most cases. I just find I like the finished look of my piece a little bit more, even though it takes a little more time to weave in ends. But I'm one of those weirdos that likes to weave in my ends, so. Okay, so now we have our center stitch, we slip the marker. So now I'm doing my make one left and knitting it through the back. And then once I come around to the beginning of the round, we'll see what to do on the next round. And don't forget, if you have any questions along the way, just be sure to drop them in the chat. And if you haven't downloaded the pattern yet, you wanna definitely get this one. I don't often say this about my patterns, but this is one of the patterns I designed that I actually think I could knit again. Usually, after I finish designing something, like, I love it, but I don't ever really feel a strong need to knit it again. This this project is actually one where I feel like I would knit this one multiple times. Okay, so we're coming around to our next marker, so we're gonna just do one more increase. We need to do a make one left. Nope, I did that wrong. Here we go. And then now we're just knitting this last stitch. So you can see we basically decreased away our garter edge, and so now it's almost like we're having a center stitch along the back. And again, I just tighten this down, and at the end, when I go to weave in my ends, I also will use my tails to sort of clean this up a bit. Sometimes you can get, and I have one here, too, a little bit of a gap right here. So when I come to weave in my ends at the end, I'll just use my tail to sort of clean that up and cinch that up a bit. So now we're at the beginning of the round. So the next round, we actually need to purl. And the reason being is that we're doing garter stitch but in the round. And so to do garter stitch in the round, you need to knit a round. And then, sadly, for some people, we have to purl a round. So I'm just gonna bring my yarn in between the needles and then start purling. And now where I started my new yarn, this is the only thing, if you use the technique when you're joining a new color and you are holding the two yarns together when you're joining a new color or even a new ball of yarn where they're the same color, you just wanna make sure you're treating these as single stitches. So I've brought my yarn to the front, and now I'm gonna purl. So here, where I've joined, I'm treating that as a single stitch, and I'm just gonna purl a few stitches here and get away from it, and you can see that. There you go. And yeah, in this case, you have a little bit of a lighter, like, you can see the lighter color here. So you know, if that's gonna bother you, that personally wouldn't bother me 'cause I feel like it's at the back of my neck. So that having that little bit of the first color coming out on that little ridge would not bother me. But if that does bother you, then when you go to join your new color, simply just drop the old color and then pick up the new color and start using the new color. I just find that my joins here, when I change color, are just a little bit neater. I don't have to use the tails as much to sort of cinch everything up. But again, it's like a lot of things in knitting, it's personal preference or, you know, just how you like how things look, so that's that. So we're just gonna keep purling. Let's see, Emily asks, "Can you use different stitch markers if you don't have multiple markers of the same color?" Absolutely. You can use any kind of stitch marker you want. And they do not need to match. The only thing I would recommend is that once you get to this point when you're joining in the round, you are going to want to make sure that you have noted which one of those markers is marking the beginning of your round. That's why I like to sort of, I mean, but I also do this as my job. I have one, like, a million, I have a million of these kind of stitch markers at home, so it's very easy for me to, you know, sort of have them all coordinate. But I know that not everybody has that. So yes, you could use whatever you wanna use for a stitch marker is great. Just make sure that on your pattern or whatever, you're just noting down which one is marking the beginning of your round. And I do recommend writing it down because I can't tell you how many times, in various knitting projects I've had, that I have started something like that, where I'm like, "Oh, I'll just remember that this orange marker's the beginning of the round or whatever." And you know, if I had all different ones, and then, you know, you set your knitting down. And you pick it back up later, and then you're like, "Uh-oh" So that's why I always recommend actually write it down so you know what is happening on your knitting project. I'm definitely somebody that likes the pen and paper when it comes to my knitting patterns. I like to print out my physical copy of my knitting pattern, and then I like to write all over it. And if I'm doing something like a sweater or something more complicated, I actually will, like, take notes in a notebook as I'm going, especially when I'm doing sweater knitting, when there's a lot of at-the-same-time directions and things like that, so. So on these purl rows, we're just purling. We're not doing any increasing. Even though we're working in the round, we're maintaining doing increases every other round. So I'm just gonna get to the end of the round here. You're actually gonna do two more rows. You're gonna do another knit row with the increases and then another purl row for the pattern. But I'm just gonna get to the end of the round, and then we're gonna go ahead and talk about the charts 'cause I wanna make sure that we have time to talk about blocking and binding off and all that fun stuff, too. So we're just gonna purl these last few, but again, you'll have a total of four rounds, so you'll have two garter stitch ridges. And I personally love putting the garter stitch with the lace. Actually, combining garter stitch and lace together probably is my favorite thing to do in knitting is to knit a bunch of garter stitch and then lace and then put little garter stitch rows in between, so I think that's why I said that I could knit this one again because it really is just about, this is my favorite kind of knitting here that we're doing. Okay, so we're at the end of the round here. Let's move this out of the way and start talking about the charts. So if we just quickly bring the cowl back in. So again, we just did this first garter ridge here, and so it's called a garter ridge because you have what are basically purl bumps or garter stitch bumps here. So you would work two more rows. Obviously, it's all indicated in the pattern, and now we're ready to start the charts, so let's take a look. I do have the charts here, but don't forget, they're in the download. So if you can't see them here, I tried to blow them up as big as I could, but they're in the pattern for you. So we're gonna start working the chart, and I just wanna talk a little bit about reading the chart. We do have, of course, videos on The Knitting Circle about reading charts. So you can take a look at those if you want more information. And as I said at the beginning, the written instructions are included for the charts in this pattern. That's something that's very important to me as a designer that I'm always providing those. That's just my personal preference. It took me a really long time to learn how to knit. I was very resistant to knitting charts for a long time. And so I do, you know, it's not always possible, but in almost everything I design, I include the written instructions for the charts 'cause I know not everybody likes them. But let's just talk about the chart, and I encourage you to at least try, check out our video, and give knitting charts a try because I do think it's easier, especially when you start talking about more complicated stitch patterns. So here is our chart. This is chart A. And so we're working in the round. So every round, we're gonna be working this way from right to left. So we would do round one like this, round two like this. So we're reading each one like this. And as you're going along, the way I like to keep track of my place is, of course, I said I was a pen and paper person, so I just have some sticky notes, whatever kind of sticky notes you want. You can use highlighter tape. I've even put this in like a plastic sleeve and used washi tape 'cause I like paper crafting, too. But so I actually like to use a sticky note, and I like to put it above where I'm working. So, like, let's say I was about to work row three. I might stick, and obviously, I would either move my sticky note when I got to the second half, or I'd put like three together or something to block this off or even set a piece of paper here, whatever. But if I was working row three, I like to put my sticky note like this, so I can see what I've already done, and it's blocking what I haven't done yet. So that's how I keep track of my place. And then also I can use the sticky note to write things down, like what the color of my stitch marker is. Okay, so now let's just look at some of these different markings we have here. So you can see here, and, again, you'll be able to see this on your pattern, that we have these little blue sort of dotted lines. Those are marking our stitch markers, and then the red box is our 12-stitch repeat. And this is something that can sometimes confuse people when it comes to these types of charts. Your stitch markers that are already on your needles are not marking this 12-stitch repeat. If you wanna mark the 12-stitch repeat, you need to then get additional stitch markers and put them in. Your stitch markers are indicated by the blue lines, and you'll be able to see that clearly in the pattern. So what we would do is we would, this is our beginning of the round, we would do our make one right, knit one, and then we're gonna yarn over, knit one, yarn over, SSK, slip, slip, knit, slip, slip, knit again, knit one, knit two together, knit two together, yarn over, knit one, yarn over, knit one. Then we're gonna come back over here and keep repeating what's in the box. So we go yarn over and keep going this way, come to here, keep going like this until we get to that marker, we do our make one, knit our center stitch, slip the marker, and then do the same thing over here. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and start working. I don't know, 'cause I didn't do the whole second round, so we might not have the right number of stitches, but I'm at least gonna show you how to get this going. So I lost my marker. Let's get one back here. So I'm just gonna move this up here, and I'll just quickly work at least part of this round so you can see how this works. So get the right yarn here, and we're gonna do our make one right, and then we're gonna knit one. Now yarn over, knit one, yarn over. SSK is slip, slip, knit. We're gonna slip, slip, knit again. Slip, slip, knit. Knit one, and then we're gonna do a knit two together twice, right? 'Cause there's two knit two togethers, knit two together, knit two together. Knit two together, knit two together, and then yarn over, knit one, yarn over, knit one. So that was yarn over, knit one, yarn over, knit one. Now we're coming back to over here again, the start of the red box. We'll do yarn over, knit one, yarn over, SSK, twice. And as indicated in the pattern, you actually would change colors, then, when you're starting this part of the cowlette. So you'll change to color C, then, for this. I kept knitting with B accidentally, but that's okay. We're just looking at how to read the chart, anyway. And so you would just keep working like that, all the way to when you got to the center stitch. And then you would do your center stitch and then work this half. Okay, let's see, we've got a couple questions here. Let's see, oh, Amy says, I use a blank note card with a little piece of tape to mark her chart. That is great. Whatever works for you. You can even buy things online to, you know, chart keepers and things like that. There's so many different ways to keep track of your chart. I love that one. Sue asks, "If you need the opening larger, would you stay flat for longer before joining?" Yes, that's a great question. And this is where, if you want to do this for any pattern, that's what you need to think about. How big do you need that hole? So typically, a close-to-the-neck cowl is going to be at, usually, around 24 inches in circumference, okay? And that can vary. Obviously, if you want, you know, a little looser, you know, I get hot a lot, so I probably would want mine to be a little bigger than that. But yes, so you just want this edge, basically your garter stitch edge, like when you fold it in half like this, this, around here, needs to be, I would say, at least 24 inches. Now, obviously, if you're knitting this for someone who's more petite or someone who's larger or you just want it closer to your neck, you want it to hang down a little bit, you would need to make that adjustment. For this particular pattern, what you need to have is in between the stitch markers, when you're working flat, in between the stitch markers here, you wanna have just the right number of stitches before you start the stitch pattern, or before you start the chart, excuse me. So this chart, each side, we've got a multiple of 12 plus 1 stitches. So, like, you could have 61 stitches between the marker, but we've done those garter stitch rows in between. Now we're getting mathy, people. Sorry. So to do the chart, we need a multiple of 12 plus 1 in between the needles. But then we also added some increases before we got to the chart, right, in the round. So we added four on each side. So you would need to have, basically, four less than a multiple of 12 plus 1. It's kind of mathy. The other thing is you can also just fudge it. And so that's probably honestly what I would do. So I would knit it flat until I wanna join it in the round. And then once I've joined it in the round, for this particular project, where I'm working those rounds of the garter stitch where I did the knits and increases and then purl a round, I would use those rounds, in particular the last two rounds, to get my stitch count right. So maybe do a knit front and back, maybe sneak some make ones in there. So then when you're ready to start the chart, you have a multiple of 12 plus 1. I mean, you can sit down with a piece of paper, the calculator on your phone and figure it out. But I would just knit until it's like, okay, it's the right size to join in the round. And then for this pattern, again, I would just use those next few rounds, just to like get my stitch count right so that the chart will work. And that would apply to any top-down shawl pattern that you're making. You would just basically knit it flat if you're doing a top-down triangle. And then once you wanna join in the round, just join in the round and keep following the pattern. And that might actually be a little bit easier if you're just following some other pattern because you could literally just, like, join in the round and then just keep going and then just keep working your chart from right to left, like you're in the round. Let's see. Okay. Oh, we've got a couple questions about my decreases. Oh, Emily caught me. So Emily says, "I noticed that you did the SSK purlwise. Would it be an issue to SSK knitwise?" So I was trying to do my SSKs knitwise, but then I just went back to what my brain normally does. So the way I SSK, so, okay, let me back that up. The way that you normally do a slip, slip, knit, is you slip as if to knit, slip as if to knit, insert your needle into the stitches, and then knit those together through the back loops, okay? So let me just show you that. So we're gonna slip as if to knit, slip as if to knit, insert our needle as if to knit to together through back loop, and knit them through the back loop, okay? So that's the, quote, normal way you do an SSK. The way I do an SSK, and I learned this in a class with Meg Swansen, and I've had other people over the years tell me that that's the same place where they've learned this, too. So you're gonna slip as if to knit and then slip the second stitch as if to purl and then go in and work them together through the back loops. So again, the way I SSK is slip as if to knit, slip as if to purl, and then work them together through the back. Now, this is a very, very minor little detail. What was pointed out in that class that I took with Meg Swansen, and I think is true, is that that SSK, when you slip the second stitch as if to purl, that lays a little bit flatter, it's a little bit neater, and, in my opinion, more mirrors a knit two together. So that's just a tiny little detail to try. And when I do these videos, I normally, you know, depending on what I'm teaching, I usually just try to do my SSK, slip as if to knit, slip as if to knit, 'cause that's the traditional way to do it. But you caught me. My brain just went into, we just went into mindless knitting mode and just did my SSKs the way I normally do them. Let's see, Karen asks another question about the slip, slip, knit and wants to know what is the difference between a slip, slip, knit and a knit two together. And that is a really great question. So let's just come back in and look at our chart here. Let me grab this needle. Okay, so the chart here is a really actual good representation of the difference. So our slip, slip, knits are over here. And so a slip, slip, knit is gonna lean to the left, and then a knit two together, like you can see here on the chart, leans to the right, and so they're mirrored. And so the reason that designers will use them, one over the other, is that they want those decreases to shape the piece a certain way and look a certain way 'cause you can get, actually, in patterns, some really strong lines when you, you know, do your slip, slip, knits on one side and then do your knit two togethers on the other side. Of course, we actually have a video on The Knitting Circle where I have some swatches where you can see, like, the slip, slip, knits are on one side, the knit two togethers are on the other side and how they mirror each other. So I encourage you to go check that out. And then we're getting close to the end of our time. So if you have any last-minute questions, pop them in the chat. I do see one more. And make sure that you've downloaded the pattern if you haven't done so yet. But our question from Barbara is, "Why does the chart have squares of no stitches?" Another great question. So the no stitch is that there is literally no stitch. So what is happening is as we're working the chart, we are increasing. And so when a designer is making a chart, we'll use the no stitches as a way to have our chart look nice and kind of look like the knitting without having stitches there. So when you're starting and there's no stitches, you literally are just basically ignoring the gray box. Well, you are ignoring the gray box. You're just ignoring the gray box and then starting. And then when you get over here, you finish with this make one right. You just do this make one right. There's nothing left, there's no stitches. You just skip right to there. So the no stitches in a chart really are just so that when the designer is making the chart, they can make the chart look more like what the knitting is gonna look like. Because you can see, up here, we don't have any no stitches, and that's because we've increased to the point that, you know, we don't have to worry about putting any of these gray boxes or no stitches in. So thank you, everybody, for watching. Dawn says, "Thank you so much." She's a newbie and learned so much. Thank you so much. I'm so glad. Whether you're a newbie or an advanced knitter, I hope that you at least learned a little something from making this cowlette with me today. Again, if you haven't done so already, don't forget to download the pattern and be sure to share with us, on social media or in our project gallery, your progress. I'd love to see it. So I'm Jen Lucas, managing editor of The Knitting Circle. Thank you so much for joining me. And I'll see you next time. Bye.