Way back in the day, I managed to put together the 12 Knits of Christmas – which was a popular series. However, this year, it’s 5 knitting projects. Mainly because the ol’ day job has been hectic (pandemic things) and also because I wanted to make sure they were all projects that were easy, would work well as gifts with a Christmas theme, but could also be other things… and at least one was a bit of a mission. So, I bring you the first of the knits – the Candy Cane Cowl. Clearly this could also be just knitted longer as a scarf, or the colours could be changed to be less festive. This will knit up quickly, in an evening or 2.

You will need:
– 2 balls of 12 ply yarn (I used Lincraft Veronica in Red and White)
– 7mm knitting needles
– Darning needle

Cast on 40 stitches in red.

The actual pattern is just 2 rows of stitches repeated.

Row 1:  Slip 1, knit 2 together, knit to the last 2 stitches, knit 1 front and back (creating and extra stitch), knit 1

Row 2:  Slip 1, knit 2, *Purl 2 together without removing the stitches from the left hand needle, purl just the first of the 2 stitches, slide both off onto the right needle.  Repeat this purling 2 motion across to the last 3 stitches (from the *) knit 3. There is a video I made ages ago showing this technique here.

Knit 10 rows in red.
Change to white. Knit 10 rows in white.
Repeat this until you have 5 bands of each colour.
Cast off your work.

You can choose to knit this further as a scarf, which is also lovely. However for the cowl, fold the ends together and stitch the cast on edge to the cast off edge.

Darn in your yarn tails.

Come back tomorrow for a baby bootie pattern.