Peacowl

The ‘Peacowl’ is a slinky lace cowl inspired by Art Nouveau peacock-feather motifs.

There are some beautiful 1890s examples of peacocks adorning books, including Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Thomas Love Peacock’s Gryll Grange. My lace motif is based on a gilded cover design for the latter by A.A. Turbayne.

Skills needed include knitting in the round, knit and purl stitches, and simple lace knitting using yarn-overs, k2tog and ssk decreases, and a few double-decreases.

Materials: 205 yards / 188 metres of DK-weight yarn. I used one ball of Outlaw Yarn’s Vanitas DK (90% alpaca, 10% merino, 218yds/200m per 100g ball). If substituting yarn, choose something with good drape (e.g. an alpaca or silk blend).

Sizing: 26”/66cm circumference, by 11”/28cm high. If you like your cowls to be snugger or longer, or taller or shorter, suggestions are included for resizing.

Full charted and written instructions are provided.