Infinity Swirl Cowl

This is a fairly simple pattern that will give you some good practice with provisional cast-on as well as closing with the Kitchener stitch, something I have to look up every single time I do it!

For this project I used size 8 US circulars (16 inch length) and casted on 56 stitches. You will need another set of circulars for the end but they don't HAVE to be the exact same size needles. Just somewhere in the vicinity will work (size 7, size 9? no big whoop). You can also adjust the number of stitches you cast on according to how wide you want your cowl. As long as it's divisible by 4, you're good to go!

Cast on 56 stitches contrast waste yarn in provisional cast on, as shown here:

Then knit in stockinette with two stitches of the main color yarn (I'm using variegated) then 2 stitches contrast yarn (for this pattern I used lion brand Amazing Glacier Bay with silver Knit Picks Reverie-both worsted weight). Knit in the round, and you will be shifting your colors by one stitch every round so you create a swirl. While carrying over your yarn throughout your work, make sure you're knitting loosely so it doesn’t clinch up accidentally. At the “end” of each round you will end up knitting three stitches of the same color to make the color shift effect. But I do promise it really does end up as a 2 x 2 color swirl. Because of this shift, it doesn't really help having a stitch marker at the start of the row unless it's one that you can un-attach and move to the right every round.

You will be knitting basically the entire skeins (approximately 30 inches long) before closing with Kitchener stitch. Feel free to follow this video as you go (she does a great job clearly explaining it):

Try to line up the swirls as best you can on the other end, although as you can see a variegated yarn will make the Kitchener transition obvious. But it's not too bad honestly. Just make sure you're matching contrasting color to contrasting color. I also recommend putting a "twist" in the cowl before connecting the ends to make it sit nicely under a coat (like a möbius). If you are doing a twist, you want to end up knitting halfway through a round so that your two sets of needles are facing different directions so that when you put the twist in they're already on the correct side.

Additional note: make sure you end up with your needles on the same pattern section as those you'll be connecting to.

Oops! That's not lined up...

Now we're talkin'!

For this project beware of "sticky yarn" such as the kind I used in the original photo. It's pretty and floofy which is so nice to work with, until you have to take apart the provisional cast on at the end to connect the cowl. To prevent the yarn from sticking too badly, you could always slip in an extra circular needle cord into your provisional cast on to make it super easy to pick up later. Or, use a different yarn! I am currently redoing this project for a Christmas present using Caron Simply Soft and Lion Brand Heartland acrylic, which shouldn't have this issue (as seen on the left).

Edited to add: if you’re new to provisional cast on it can be kind of tricky to get at every other stitch when you’re switching colors. So take your time and try not to throw your nice cowl out the window in frustration! Just try to pay attention to the loops. One will be super obvious, just hanging out. One will have yarn going through it to get stretched across the next color like so: