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Earlier on in the year, during May, my fella, Cain (my German Shephered) and I went on our usual excursion through France in our little motorhome. As normal on our excursions I HAVE to find a yarn shop, even though I take loads of balls / skeins with me, you can never have enough!.  My yarn shop find resulted in me purchasing some Passard yarn; Boheme, Bouba and Sultane, 5 balls in total, all differing colours. Now I'm back home and I've finished all my WIP's I decided to take a look at my purchases and decide what to make.  Using one 50 gram ball of the Boheme and some contrasting Aran yarn I had already in my stash I came up with this lovely cowl pattern. It is knit using the slip stitch mosaic pattern work that I so love. I'm just hoping you do to as I'm sharing the pattern with you today.

Instructions for the French Inspired Cowl 

I can just imagine some chic Paris girl wearing one of these statement cowls!  

Bon chic, bon genre (rough translation - Good style , good attitude)

Yarn A - Plassard's Boheme yarn or any chunky yarn Yarn B - Contrasting Aran yarn Cast on 29 stitches using 6mm needles and Yarn A Rows 1 and 2: Knit using Yarn A Row 3: K1, *K3, Sl 1 wyib, K1, Sl1 wyib; repeat from * to last 4 stitches, K4 with Yarn B Row 4: P4, *Sl 1 wyif, P1, Sl1 wyif, P3; repeat from * to last st, P1 with Yarn B Rows 5 and 6: Knit using Yarn A Row 7: K1, *Sl1 wyib, K1, Sl 1 wyib, K3; repeat from * to last 4 st , Sl1 wyib, K1, Sl1 ywib, K1 with Yarn B Row 8: P1, Sl1 wyif, P1, Sl1 wyif, *P3, Sl1 wyif, P1, Sl 1 wyif; repeat from * to last st, P1 Repeat rows 1-8 until you run out of yarn ending with row 8. Cast off  and block gently. With right sides together join cast on and cast off rows and weave in the ends.

Abbreviations:-  K            Knit  P            Purl  Sl 1 wyib    Slip one stitch with yarn in back of work  Sl 1 wyif     Slip one stitch with yarn in front of work  Tip:-  Always slip the stitches purlwise Pattern chart:-

The Knitter is the premier magazine for confident knitters who are looking for beautiful, original patterns from the world’s best designers (quote taken striaght from their web site). So imagine how I felt when the editor Kirstie liked my "cross over top" idea and featured the pattern in the 99th edition of the Knitter that's out today- 21st June 2016.

Update - This pattern is now available from my web site - click here 

I submitted the idea to their "criss cross trends" theme. Kirstie stipulated that she wanted something that combined both lace and cables. Well I gave them that in my chequered lace and cable pattern. I also incorporated the "criss cross" in the actual finish of the garment as one half criss crosses over the front. 

Where did I get this unusual idea from? you may wonder, well it came to me out of the blue in the middle of the night.! Can I really create a garment out of 2 long pieces of knitting I thought to myself. So early in the morning, No I didnt knit 2 scarves, I simply took 2 pieces of fabric and pinned them on my mannequin, adjusting the width of each fabric piece as I went along. Mmm I thought, If I sew it here and here and joined it up the back, yes it would work. 

Knitting it was a worrying task though. What if I knitted the pieces and somehow I had done my calculations incorrectly and it didn't fit anymore? There is no trying it on to fit as you go along with this top. Phew, all was OK though. Here you can see it in the latest edition of The Knitter magazine