Mokum Cowl

Mokum Colorwork Cowl by Salt and Stone Knits

What is Being Made

The Mokum Cowl is a knitted neck accessory designed as a versatile layering piece. This finished cowl measures approximately 11.25 inches by 12.5 inches (28.5 cm by 29 cm), making it a one-size design suitable for various wearers. The cowl features charted colorwork that creates visual interest and texture, combining two yarn colors in a coordinated pattern.

Construction Technique

Mokum is constructed in the round from the bottom up, beginning with a Crochet Provisional Cast-on. This technique allows for a seamless, reversible edge. The pattern creates a folded hem by working with the cast-on stitches, which provides a professional finish and adds subtle structure to the cowl's lower edge.

The body of the cowl is worked in charted colorwork, a technique that uses a visual grid pattern to guide color changes and stitch placement. This method allows knitters to follow a precise design while maintaining consistent tension across both colors.

For the top edge, stitches are picked up on the wrong side of the work and finished using the Kitchener Stitch, also known as grafting. This bind-off technique creates a seamless, elastic edge that mirrors the folded hem at the bottom, resulting in a balanced, polished appearance with no visible seams or cast-off edge.

Stitches Used

• Stockinette stitch (primary fabric base for colorwork)
• Crochet Provisional Cast-on (temporary cast-on method)
• Kitchener Stitch (grafting technique for seamless bind-off)

Yarn and Materials

The Mokum Cowl is designed for worsted weight yarn, a medium-weight yarn category that knits to a moderate gauge. The sample shown uses Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted, which is composed of 100% Extrafine Merino fiber. This natural fiber choice provides softness and breathability suitable for a neck accessory.

Yardage requirements: Main Color (MC) requires 155 meters or 175 yards, while Contrast Color (CC) requires 74 meters or 81 yards. The sample demonstrates the pattern worked with the main color in worsted weight and the contrast color in fingering weight held double, offering flexibility in yarn selection and allowing for creative color combinations.

Additional materials include a 4.5 mm (US 7) circular needle for the main knitting, a 4.0 mm (US G-6) crochet hook for the provisional cast-on, stitch markers for tracking pattern repeats and rounds, smooth contrasting waste yarn in the same weight as the working yarn for the provisional cast-on, and a tapestry needle for weaving in ends and grafting.

Difficulty Level

This pattern is rated as intermediate difficulty, reflecting the skills required to execute colorwork knitting, manage a provisional cast-on, and complete a Kitchener Stitch bind-off. While not a beginner project, knitters with foundational skills in circular knitting and basic colorwork techniques will find this cowl an achievable and rewarding project.