First Knitting Pattern: Isabella Riff Cowl

One of my goals this year is to use up some of my yarn stash. I have way too much for my level of knitting or crochet productivity. Some of the stash I have bought, but a lot of it I inherited from Mr S' grandmother's stash.

So this year I thought "get to it" and just started knitting a cowl. I knit a quick swatch, quickly dismissed it and cast on. I made the pattern up as I went along and made notes as I knit it. At the end I decided that the cowl I made would make a really great pattern for people wanting to create something a little bit 'fancy' without really complicated knitting stitches.

I find that when I'm knitting a pattern I generally use tally marks to keep track of where I am in the pattern. This can become messy and confusing. The pattern I was making was aimed at a beginner/easy level so I thought I would try to make it as simple as possible to keep track of progress made through the pattern. A checkbox for each row seemed to be the perfect solution. I typed up the pattern and gave the pattern a name, the Isabella Riff Cowl pattern was born!

Isabella Riff Cowl

The Isabella Riff Cowl pattern is a good simple introduction into lace knitting. 
The result is a very loose and slouchy cowl. with some lacey pillers. It is a 2 skein project.

Skills needed: Knit, Purl, Yarn Over, Knit 2 together, Knitting in the round.

The pattern includes tick boxes next to each step so you can keep track of your progress through the pattern.

~TIP~In row 13 pm every 5 or 10 stitches to keep track of the lacework rows.

On 16th January 2014 I uploaded my first knitting pattern to Ravelry. I had never uploaded a pattern to Ravelry before and wasn't sure what to expect. I fumbled through and got the pattern uploaded and opened a Ravelry store called Make It Nifty.

I decided that I would make this pattern free as it is my first ever knitting pattern and I just really wanted to share it.

I got really excited as I saw that people were downloading the pattern. I was even more ecstatic when I saw the first finished project that someone else had made.

If you want to download the pattern you can go the pattern page here - Isabella Riff Cowl pattern
Or click here to download now.

If you use the pattern please tell me about your experience. I'd love to hear some feedback.

Cheers,