Daystar Cowl in Rowan Alpaca Soft DK (Fr) - Downloadable PDF

Daystar Cowl by Martin Storey – Knitting Pattern Summary (Rowan Alpaca Soft DK)

The Daystar Cowl is a beautifully designed knitted cowl created by Martin Storey for Rowan, published in 2020. This pattern, available as a downloadable PDF, produces an elegant circular cowl measuring 39 cm wide (laid flat) and 24 cm tall, making it a versatile and stylish accessory suitable for cooler seasons. The design is rated as intermediate in difficulty, making it an ideal project for knitters who are comfortable with colourwork techniques and working in the round.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a seamless, circular knitted cowl worked entirely in the round on circular needles. It features a striking two-colour Fair Isle colourwork panel framed by two-colour ribbed borders at the top and bottom, giving the piece a polished, structured finish. The cowl is designed to sit comfortably around the neck, providing both warmth and visual interest.

Design Details and Construction

The cowl is constructed in one seamless piece, worked in the round from cast-on to cast-off. The construction follows a clear sequence:

• Cast-on: 196 stitches are cast on using a 3.25 mm circular needle with yarn A (Rainy Day 210), and joined in the round with a stitch marker placed to indicate the beginning of each round.
• Lower two-colour rib border: Seven rounds of two-colour ribbing are worked, alternating knit stitches in yarn A and purl stitches in yarn B (Tea 205), with the unused yarn carried across the wrong side of the work.
• Fair Isle colourwork panel: Worked on a 4 mm circular needle in stocking stitch in the round, following a charted 14-stitch repeat pattern that is repeated 14 times per round. Rounds 1 to 37 of the chart are worked first, then rounds 34 to 37 are repeated until the colourwork section measures 18 cm from the top of the lower rib border.
• Upper two-colour rib border: Seven rounds of two-colour ribbing are worked on the 3.25 mm circular needle, mirroring the lower border.
• Cast-off: Worked using yarn A only.

Techniques Used

This pattern introduces and reinforces several important intermediate knitting techniques:

• Working in the round on circular needles – the entire cowl is knitted as a seamless tube, eliminating the need for seaming.
• Two-colour ribbing – a decorative rib that alternates knit stitches in one colour and purl stitches in another, with the unused yarn carried (stranded) across the wrong side. This requires careful tension management to keep the fabric elastic and even.
• Fair Isle / stranded colourwork – the central panel uses the traditional Fair Isle technique, in which two colours are worked across each round and the non-working yarn is stranded or woven across the wrong side of the fabric. This creates a dense, warm, and beautifully patterned fabric.
• Chart reading – knitters follow a colourwork chart with a 14-stitch pattern repeat, working from right to left as is standard when knitting in the round.
• Gauge/tension awareness – two different needle sizes are used deliberately to achieve the correct tension for each section: the rib borders and the colourwork panel have different stitch and row gauges.

Stitches Used

• Two-colour 1x1 rib – alternating one knit stitch in yarn A and one purl stitch in yarn B, worked in the round to form the top and bottom borders.
• Stocking stitch in the round (knit every round) – used for the Fair Isle colourwork panel, producing a smooth, flat fabric that showcases the colourwork pattern clearly.
• Stranded colourwork stitches – knit stitches worked with two yarns carried simultaneously across the round, following the charted 14-stitch repeat