There's a new cowl pattern in the house!

The shed some light cowl offers mosaic colorwork knitting in the round

What's behind the design

I designed the Shed some light cowl as an ode to weaving and to the weavers' cottages in Yorkshire, England, the region where our yarn is milled and dyed. 
Many significant historic events have centered around textiles, including the first Industrial Revolution (mid 18th C - 1830) that shaped the landscape of northern England. Manchester became the world's first industrial city and the region spawned many villages in the Yorkshire region and beyond for textile production. 

The weavers' cottage

When my sister and I visited our mill and dye house, our dyer Keith graciously drove us around the region to show us beautiful Yorkshire and its textile history. One of the buildings that captured me was one that Keith pointed out as a former weavers' cottage. I wondered how he knew it was a weavers' cottage, to which he responded, 'because of all the windows'. The windows 'shed light' on the looms so that weavers could engage their craft.

Finding stitch patterns

When I found a stitch pattern in Lydia Klös's book, The New Knitting Stitch Dictionary, I knew I wanted to swatch it for a potential design. As I looked at my swatch, my weaving background kept nagging at me. Then I saw it. The stitch pattern reminded me of the weavers' cottage windows. I knew that our colors would offer many beautiful options for this 2-color mosaic pattern and to showcase that, I landed on a cowl design. 

Honing in on weaving as a design muse, I wanted a stitch for the cowl edges that would continue the theme. The herringbone stitch was a logical choice esthetically because it mirrors a woven pattern.

Woven herringbone cloth - photo from Wikipedia

The problem with the knitted herringbone stitch, however, is that it is a dense and tight stitch pattern. In order for it not to be restrictive as the cowl's edge stitch, I found that increasing the needle size for this edge stitch would solve the problem and frame the mosaic stitch beautifully. 

A name of puns

With the cowl finished, it was time to give it a name. 'Shed some light' became the winner for all of its double entendres. The weavers' cottages 'shed light' for weavers; the windows and light are represented by the squares mosaic pattern. A 'shed' in weaving is the space created by the weaver to place horizontal threads (weft) over vertical ones (warp). A goat 'sheds' or molts off its downy undercoat in spring, providing this amazing cashmere yarn for us to work with. 

Want some color combination ideas for the cowl? Check out this blog post: How to choose colors for colorwork knitting.

In the meantime, get your cowl kit. Knit from 2 skeins of contrasting colors in our fingering weight cashmere yarn, the pattern yields 2 cowls sized 7.5"/19cm in length and 20.5"/52.5cm in circumference. You can make a cowl for yourself and give one away, just in time for holiday gift making. The pattern also gives you guidance on making the cowl any size you'd like. 

Until next week, find joy in making with our yarn!   - Amy

p.s. We'd love for you to join our community of makers! Find out more: Join the June Cashmere Community