Project: Bulky Arm Knit Cowl

As a knitter/crafter do you sometimes get calls from friends and relatives that go like this? “Hello.” “Hi, can you make me…..?” I certainly do. The latest was from my sister who wanted a bulky arm knit cowl. At first I turned her down because I wasn’t really interested in arm knitting and because I knew it would be hard to find the really (like 1″ thick) bulky yarn my sister wanted. But, it is my sister and she has been really a lifesaver for my family spending hours everyday at the hospital with my mom, so I kept my eye out for appropriate yarn. Then I saw this ribbon yarn, Red Heart Boutique Filigree, at Joann.

Most of the patterns I saw knit with it were ribbon scarves, but I had a feeling that knit on my arm it would make more of a nice billowy tube. Sort of like knitting with t-shirt yarn. I’m happy to say I was right. This cowl has a wonderful big, bulky look, but it is light and soft to wear. I love the look of the black and white, I think it looks a little like newsprint.

I’m not going to teach you to arm knit here, there are plenty of good video out there. I found this one with Vickie Howell was all I needed.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but once I got going it was really easy and really fast.

For this cowl I cast on four stitches and knit until it was just big enough to easily pull over my head when sewn together, about 22 inches. (Seriously, that is the whole pattern.) I was able to knit the whole thing with one skein of the yarn, 23 yards. It was pretty exact with just enough tail to sew the two ends together into a loop. I actually found the seaming the trickiest part of the whole thing. I did my best to do a neat seam for two bound off edges, luckily, the nature of the yarn hide any errors.

I decided to try another one using yarn made from fabric. I wanted to use a jersey, but didn’t have any on hand, so I cut yards and yards of 4″ ribbon from some stretch fabric with a bit of ribbing.

It knit up just fine and looks ok, but it was just way too heavy and stiff. It did convince me though that it should work beautifully with a light jersey. Stay tuned….