Burberry cowl

December 4, 2009
free knitting pattern…burberry inspired cowl neck scarf

a slight twist on garter girl style today…this summer i was looking through instyle magazine and saw an awesome cowl neck scarf from burberry, but was in sticker shock over the price…$750.

knitted cowl - julianne smith - view 10

before i even get into this post, i need to be upfront with a major disclaimer. in general, i’m not a fan of blatantly ripping off designs. while i’m aware that my cowl neck scarf is inspired by burberry, there are two issues at play…1.) the price tag is a little hefty even for me, and 2.) i haven’t actually been able to find the scarf itself. i’ve looked endlessly online and been to four different burberry stores with no luck and sales people who had no idea what i was talking about. none the less, i still loved it and wanted to try my hand at creating a knitted pattern. so, here goes…

knitted cowl - julianne smith - view 2

i’m by no means a knitting expert, i just love to do it. i had lots of help and support from my knitting group. i first looked through vogue knitting stitchionary vol. two: cables, which i checked out from the library. i found an allover cable idea (#157, reversible ribbed cable). i used this cable pattern as a base, but then katie from my knitting group helped me to modify it quite a bit to get it to look exactly how i wanted.

knitted cowl - julianne smith - view 3

thankfully, the instyle blurb listed that the cowl was made of wool and silk. so, i headed up to a tangled skein (thank you, allison) and picked out a really soft merino silk with a slight shine. i used two balls exactly. the cowl in these particular pictures is color “mousse #132.” it is for a friend who totally deserves it! i also picked up “charcoal #131″ for myself, except that on the plane to engage i left an entire ball of yarn…whoops! i just ordered another one, so hopefully i’ll get mine done soon. i can’t wait to wear it and love it all winter!

knitted cowl - julianne smith - view 9

without further ado, here is the free burberry inspired cowl neck scarf pattern…
burberry inspired cowl neck scarf

click here for a printable version of the following pattern.

materials…
size 10 knitting needles
2 balls cascade yarns venezia merino silk
cable needle
blunt point eyelet needle for stitching ends together
crochet hook for weaving in ends

directions…
provisional cast on 58 stitches
rows 1 – 10: slip first stitch on each row and stockinette stitch remaining stitches (knit odd rows, purl even rows)
row 11: slip first stitch, k 2, slip 8 onto cable needle (hold to front), k 8, k cable needle, k 20, slip 8 onto cable needle (hold to front), k 8, k cable needle, k 3
row 12 – 24: slip first stitch on each row and stockinette stitch remaining stitches (same as rows 1 – 10)
row 25: slip first stitch, k 20, slip 8 onto cable needle (hold to back), k 8, k cable needle, k 21
row 26 – 30: slip first stitch on each row and stockinette stitch remaining stitches (same as rows 1-10)

repeat pattern to desired length. (note: my cowl in the above pictures is 20 inches long, which was 4 pattern repeats.) remove the provisional cast on stitches. kitchener stitch the last row together with the provisional cast on stitches. weave in all ends.