734 Cabello Cowl - Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Northampton

734 Cabello Cowl – Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Northampton

The 734 Cabello Cowl is a beautifully structured knitted cowl designed by Lori Wagner, offered as a downloadable PDF knitting pattern. Worked entirely in the round from the bottom up, this cowl is an excellent project for advanced beginner knitters looking to build confidence with textured stitch patterns and simple shaping techniques. The finished cowl measures 10 inches high with a 23.5-inch circumference, making it a cozy, close-fitting accessory that sits beautifully around the neck.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a women's knitted cowl — a seamless, circular neck warmer with a polished, structured appearance. The design features garter stitch borders at both the bottom and top edges, which frame a central body section worked in a seeded texture chevron pattern. The combination of the clean borders and the dynamic chevron motif gives the Cabello Cowl a sophisticated look that works equally well as an everyday accessory or a handmade gift.

Construction and Techniques

The Cabello Cowl is constructed using a bottom-up, worked-in-the-round method, meaning it is knitted seamlessly on a circular needle from the cast-on edge upward. This approach eliminates any seaming and results in a smooth, professional finish. Because all rounds are worked in the round, knitters reading from the provided chart should note that all rounds are read from right to left. For those who prefer written instructions, the body section is also fully written out, giving knitters the flexibility to work in whichever format suits them best.

The garter stitch borders at the top and bottom are created by alternating knit and purl rounds when working in the round, producing the characteristic ridged texture associated with garter stitch. These borders provide a neat, non-curling edge that frames the central pattern section cleanly.

Stitches Used

The Cabello Cowl draws on a focused set of knitting stitches and techniques that make it approachable for advancing beginners while still offering satisfying skill-building opportunities. The stitches and techniques used include:

• Knit (k) and Purl (p) — the foundational stitches used throughout the borders and body
• Yarn Over (yo) — used to create deliberate eyelets and add stitches as part of the chevron shaping
• Knit 2 Together (k2tog) — a right-leaning decrease that helps shape the chevron points
• SSK (slip, slip, knit) — a left-leaning decrease worked by slipping two stitches individually as if to knit, then knitting them together through the front loops
• SK2P (slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over) — a centered double decrease that removes two stitches at once, creating sharp chevron peaks within the seeded texture pattern
• Stockinette Stitch (St st) — used as the gauge reference stitch and as a component within the body pattern

The interplay of yarn overs with paired decreases such as k2tog, ssk, and sk2p is what generates the chevron movement across the body of the cowl. The seeded texture within the chevron adds tactile interest and visual depth, preventing the fabric from reading as plain or flat.

Materials

The pattern calls for one skein of Valley Yarns Northampton, a 100% wool worsted weight yarn available in 100g / 247-yard skeins. The sample shown in the pattern is worked in color 53 Stratosphere. Valley Yarns Northampton is a smooth, sturdy wool that takes blocking beautifully, which is important for this pattern — the gauge is measured after blocking at 17.5 stitches and 25 rows over 4 inches in Stockinette stitch.

The recommended needle is a US size 8 (5.00 mm) 24-inch circular needle, though knitters are encouraged to use whatever