527 Midnight Marigold Cowl - Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns BFL Fingering Hand Dyed

527 Midnight Marigold Cowl – Knitting Pattern by Deborah Tomasello

The 527 Midnight Marigold Cowl is a beautifully crafted colorwork cowl designed by Deborah Tomasello and published by Valley Yarns. This intermediate-level knitting pattern produces a stunning accessory with a finished size of approximately 6 inches wide and 40 inches in circumference, making it a generous, wearable loop that sits elegantly around the neck and shoulders. One of the most appealing features of this design is its versatility: the finishing method allows the knitter to choose between a traditional cowl shape or a Möbius twist, simply by inserting one twist into the fabric before grafting the live stitches to the cast-on edge.

What Is Being Made

This pattern creates a seamless, tubular cowl worked lengthwise in the round. At 40 inches long and 6 inches wide, the finished piece wraps comfortably around the neck with room to layer or drape. The cowl is knitted as a long tube and then finished by grafting the two ends together — with or without a twist — giving the knitter creative control over the final silhouette. The result is a sophisticated, colorwork-rich accessory suitable for cooler seasons.

Techniques Used

• Stranded colorwork: The primary design technique, stranded knitting involves carrying two colors of yarn across each round, working stitches in whichever color the chart dictates. This creates a dense, warm fabric with beautiful two-color motifs on the surface.
• Worked in the round: The cowl is knitted seamlessly on a circular needle, eliminating the need for seaming and keeping the colorwork pattern continuous and uninterrupted.
• Seamless construction: There are no sewn side seams. The tube is cast on, worked in the round, and finished by grafting — a technique that joins live stitches invisibly to the cast-on edge for a polished, professional result.
• Grafting (Kitchener stitch): The live stitches at the end of the piece are grafted to the cast-on edge, with the optional single twist inserted to create the Möbius variation.
• Charted colorwork: The pattern uses Chart A and Chart B, each repeated across their respective halves of the round. Charts are provided for easy visual reading of the two-color motif, with the 26-round repeat worked continuously until the desired length is reached.
• Wet blocking and steam pressing: The finishing instructions call for wet blocking with a steam iron and damp cloth, blocking the piece in half so that each half mirrors the other, ensuring straight, crisp edges.

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch (k): The entire fabric is worked in knit stitches in the round, which produces a smooth stockinette surface — the ideal backdrop for showcasing stranded colorwork motifs.
• Colorwork pattern rounds: Rounds 1 through 26 form the repeating colorwork sequence, worked entirely in knit stitches with two colors held and managed simultaneously.

Materials

The pattern calls for Valley Yarns BFL Fingering Hand-Dyed, a luxurious 100% Blue Faced Leicester Wool yarn available in 100g/416-yard skeins. BFL wool is prized for its natural sheen, softness, and excellent stitch definition — qualities that make it particularly well suited to colorwork patterns where clarity of motif is essential. Two skeins are required, one in each colorway:

• Color A: Marigold — a warm, golden-toned hand-dyed colorway
• Color B: Midnight — a deep, rich dark hand-dyed colorway

The contrast between Marigold and Midnight gives the colorwork motifs striking visual impact, with the warm and cool tones playing off each other beautifully across the fabric.

The recommended needle is a US size 3 (3.25mm) 16-inch circular needle, or the size needed to achieve the specified gauge. Additional materials include stitch markers to separate the two chart sections within each round.