Two-Tone Cashmere Silk Cowl

Pretty much as soon as I saw this technique at the Erlbacher Crank-In, I knew I wanted to make this. Pat Koharik of Ewe Got Socks gave this inspiring presentation during the demo sessions, showing us all the different garments and accessories that could be made from tubes cranked on a circular sock machine.

Much of the brilliance in her technique is how the tubes are joined together, simply and elegantly, to produce wider pieces of fabric that then become scarves, shawls, and cocoon sweaters, even.

Inspired by the “Creating with Tubes” workshop by Pat Koharik, I knit this simple two-toned cowl using CashSilk Lace held together with Silk Mist. The two yarn textures together create a fabric with unbelievable drape, softness, and feel. Plus, seeing the colours meld together to create new hues is just delicious. I want to make SO MANY more of these to experiment with all the colour combinations in my head!

Two-Tone Cashmere Silk Cowl

5 from 1 vote

Inspired by the "Creating with Tubes" workshop by Pat Koharik, I knit this simple two-toned cowl using CashSilk Lace held together with Silk Mist with my Erlbacher Speedster CSM.

Servings 1 finished cowl (approximately 10″ wide and 45″ circumference)

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Equipment

• Circular Sock Knitting Machine (I used an Erlbacher Speedster CSM)
• 72-stitch cylinder for CSM (or larger, if you have one). The more stitches, the wider your cowl will be.

Materials

  

1x2x3x

Tube 1

• 1 skein SweetGeorgia Yarns CashSilk Lace in Dark Orchid
• 1 skein SweetGeorgia Yarns Silk Mist in Strawberry Tea

Tube 2

• 1 skein SweetGeorgia Yarns CashSilk Lace in Arbutus
• 1 skein SweetGeorgia Yarns Silk Mist in Amber Ale

Instructions

 

Knit Tubes

• Cast on 72 stitches using cast-on bonnet and waste yarn.
• Switch to main yarn. In this case, I threaded the CashSilk Lace through the standard yarn mast and then used a "Lycra Bar" accessory to hold the Silk Mist separately. This prevented the two yarns from being tangled together as I knit the two yarns into the fabric.
• Crank 280 rounds.
• Switch to waste yarn, crank about 10 rounds, and remove from machine.
• Drop two stitches down the entire length of the tube to expose a ladder of unknit stitches.
• Repeat with the second set of yarns and make a second tube.

Join Tubes

• Using a latch hook, join the two tubes by latching up the dropped stitches as per Pat Koharik's workshop demo (in the video).
• Finally, I picked up the live stitches off the waste yarn onto two sets of circular needles, so that I could use a three-needle bind-off to join the ends of the cowl. If you prefer, you could also graft the ends of the cowl to create a more seamless look. I added a twist to the cowl before joining the ends to produce a "mobius" cowl.

Video

Craft: Circular Sock Machine (CSM)

Maker: Felicia Lo

Skill Level: Beginner