Spinning and Knitting Project: First Handspun Cowl

I'm excited to share with you my first completely finished project made with my own handspun yarn - a warm wool cowl.  This project was a long time in the making, which makes the end result that much more satisfying.  Here's the story of how this cowl came to be!


I started with a 2-3 ounce skein of purple merino roving from CJ Kopec Creations.  My mom picked this up for me at a yarn shop sale, around the same time that she bought me my spinning wheel.  After practicing first with some spare roving pieces, the purple merino was the first full skein I spun, as an average-weight singles.

You can just see the purple roving waiting its turn on
the couch while I spun my first bit of scrap roving (white).

The purple sat for a long time on the spool, waiting to be plied with something more neutral (I'm not a huge fan of bright color - the purple alone was a bit intense).  At the Fiber Festival in Allegan, MI, I bought a 2-3 ounce skein of grayish-brown Polwarth, which I spun in one sitting!  The Polwarth had a bit more shine to it, contrasting nicely with the matte but fuzzy merino.  I plied them together, having some Polwarth left over which I plied to itself.  I'll find another use for that someday.

Purple Merino plied with Gray/Brown Polwarth

The skein came with me to France, and this fall I knitted it into this nice cowl.  I cast on the cowl at my first Tricothé meeting, the knitting group I've joined here.  You can find the knitting pattern here.  I cast on a few less stitches, as I was working with less yarn and wanted to make sure the cowl would be tall enough.  It was a nice simple pattern which shows off the yarn well.  Any questions, feel free to ask!  Otherwise, enjoy a few more photos :-).