Sharing this pattern with the world has been a long time coming! I’m so happy to say the Comfort Cowl pattern is now available for sale on Ravelry and on Etsy. I know, I know, it’s a crazy time of year for me to be publishing a knitting pattern, right in the middle of our Holiday Market and the overflowing days that make up our life this time of year, but I got a wild hair and stayed up way too late one night finishing it up. I already had the rough draft of the pattern written and the pictures ready to go… I just needed to put the finishing touches on everything. So close. I was afraid life would keep feeling too busy and I would never get it done, so I finally just did it. That felt good!

I would like to thank my friends for the fun photo shoot in October, we had a group of moms with their little ones (behind the lens and in front of it), and we all laughed a lot and really enjoyed ourselves. I’m so grateful for the beautiful moments Little Trees Photography captured that day. I would also like to thank my test knitters, including my friend Nicole’s daughter. (You can see her finished cowl here.) Children can knit this cowl. I’m very pleased because my intention was to create a pattern simple enough for beginning knitters and also quick enough to keep the momentum going.

I remember Stephanie Pearl-McPhee saying in one of her books (I don’t remember which one, perhaps you do) that people always recommend scarves for first projects for knitters, but that they take forever and aren’t an ideal beginning project at all. Some of my first projects were scarves and they do take a long time to knit! These Comfort Cowls knit up in no time (thanks to the bulky yarn that makes them so cozy & size 13 knitting needles), which I find very satisfying among all the projects I seem to have going lately that take so long to finish. (By the way, when I entered the name of the pattern in Ravelry, it searched the database and said there were no other patterns with that name, but after publishing it and searching under patterns, I discovered there were quite a few. I didn’t think to check that beforehand, so if you happen to search for it in Ravelry, just look up Comfort Cowl by Taryn Kae Wilson.)

Here’s what I wrote about the Comfort Cowl when I was finishing up the pattern:

Comfort Cowl :: A simple, cozy ribbed cowl.

The soft wool against your skin… the warmth wrapped around you on a cold day… to me, this cowl feels like the ultimate in comfort. We hear about comfort food. This is comfort knitting. And I think this cowl is the perfect knitted accessory for mamas to wear while they snuggle their little ones (as you can see in these sweet pictures!) This pattern is great for beginners and for everyone who appreciates the satisfaction of a quick project. The buttonholes are optional, so if you are just starting out and want to keep things as simple as possible, you can skip that part altogether. The cowl will stretch so you will be able to pull it over your head, making buttonholes not absolutely necessary.

Feeling tired of all those knitting projects you have piled up that seem to take forever to finish? This project is not one of those. The bulky yarn knits up quickly, giving you a finished cowl in no time. If you need an instant gratification knitting project, this is the pattern for you. Plus it only takes a single skein of yarn! Knit 2, Purl 2 is a rhythm I really enjoy and naturally gravitate towards in my knitting. A few awesome buttons can really make the whole cowl. I’m in love with the beautiful wooden buttons in our family’s shop at: www.woolymossroots.etsy.com and we’re so grateful for your support!

Oh yes, the buttons. It was so much fun for me to pair the buttons with the yarn! Jeff made such beautiful buttons for me to choose from in a variety of woods. (A big thank you to him as well!) I chose buttons in Oregon yew wood for the cowl with the yellow yarn, black walnut wood buttons to go with the robin’s egg blue yarn, red cedar buttons to go with the plum purple yarn, and cedar wood buttons to go with the grey yarn. (Oh, and this picture above shows tree buttons in Oregon madrone wood on blue yarn.) I always planned on releasing this pattern after loading up the shop with lots of buttons to go along with the pattern… but we only had a handful of sets this week in the right size and every day I wanted to take pictures for the shop it was pouring outside. So, buttons to go with the pattern will be available in the shop soon. (And you can always order custom buttons for your cowl too!)

In addition to the pattern, I also decided to make a few of the knitted cowls available for sale. I’ve been asked many times if I would sell my knitting and the answer is that I would love to! However, after purchasing yarn, factoring in the value of the buttons Jeff makes, and then the time it takes to knit something (even with faster knits like these cowls)… I have to charge a bit to make it worth my time and I wasn’t sure if people would want to spend that much. (But we also weren’t sure in the beginning if people would want to pay for handmade buttons, but so many knitters have told us that after spending so much time on a project, they really want buttons made with the same love and care as the project they’re putting them on. We’re so grateful for the support of handmade!) I’d like to charge less and make my handknits more affordable, but I need to be practical about the time it takes me to make each project from start to finish. So, all that being said, handknit cowls are now available in the shop and I can also make custom cowls with yarn color and wood buttons of your choice. I enjoy making them, so I’m happy to offer them. And I’m delighted to have published this pattern because I have so many pattern ideas dancing around in my head and it’s a bit of a dream come true for me.

P.S. We’re having a giveaway today over on SouleMama blog. I wrote about the Comfort Cowl pattern there as well. Head on over for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate to our shop! Also, we’re offering a coupon code, good through the 17th.