Cowl Girls: The Neck's Big Thing to Knit [Paperback]

 

 

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What's not to love about a book that is relatively inexpensive, and does exactly what it promised in its title and front page, that is provide patterns for 41 cowls/gaiters (even a convertible balaclava.

There are patterns easy enough for beginners, and patterns that will keep intermediate on their toes. I don't think anything in there screams experienced knitter. There are cables, knit and purl combinations, ribs, lace stitches, colourwork and even stuffed balls. Most of the designs are somewhat eccentric with some really nice ones and some I wouldn't be caught dead in. But with the variety in the book, almost everyone will be able to find something interesting to wear. Some of the colour combinations don't work for me, but that's easy to change after all.

My main source of annoyance with the book has to be that it doesn't have many designs on worsted weight yarns and smaller weights. Most of the projects are made with chunky, bulky, polar (or super-bulky) yarns, and are going to be more difficult to substitute for than average. Also while it's nice that there is a variety of yarns used, the bulkiest yarns are really a drain on the wallet. It doesn't seem very wise from someone who writes in the introduction that they were given a wide variety of yarns to choose from to pick the most expensive options. Example: one of the bulkiest project requires 7 balls of Misti Hand Paint Super Chunky, (ka-ching!) and a smaller one with the much cheaper Cascade Magnum. And I don't think that for those two projects the yarn characteristics had anything to do with it. It also clashes a bit with the book's seemingly targeted audience of young/new/hip knitters, and also with the fact that those pieces will all be out of fashion in a year or two. It's the "Vogue Knitting Syndrome" I suppose.

Another minor pet peeve is that I could swear I have seen some of the designs published in aforementioned Vogue Knitting before. Consistent buyers might want to check that before buying this book. I don't think the whole of the patterns are reprints, but you might as well check.

There are technical discussions on the book. First a bit of disambiguation of cowl/gaiter/dickey/snood/balaclava/donut/infinity scarf/necklace, then a section that describes how the knitted construction is made. At the end of the book there is an interesting discussion on how to switch a pattern written to be knitted in the round to back and forth, and vice versa. It's not the most outlandish technical piece, but I think it is uncommon, and I think the articulation of those notions will be useful to many.

The book is well edited, the photos are nice (some of the showier patterns, or maybe just the less easy to understand pieces, are even shown in three different angles), the instructions are clear and easy to read, so far.

In any case, the book has a lot of content, and for all my critique of the yarn selection, at least the designer got a lot of different designs that aren't copypasta from a bunch of anonymous blogs.

This book is very easy to follow and gives clear descriptions in the back as to how to do some of the descriptions. I recommend this for all levels of knitting as there is something for everyone. All scarves are done on circular needles.

I love the lay out of this book, and the photos of the cowls are gorgeous. The projects are really interesting and challenging. However, I live in Canada and not all the yarns recommended are available here. Not only that, all knitters need to be able to substitute. There is no indication of the weight range or yarn type to make substitutions easier, and I don't want to assume that in these projects the yarn is matched to its recommended needle size. I find that a real nuisance. It would be helpful as well to indicate the expertise level of the project.

Having said that, I will definitely try some of these projects, and I may even (sigh) resort to gauge swatches.

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