About

Sportsball is a blend of brioche techniques. Although brioche isn’t a common tool in my knitting arsenal, I just loved the texture and squish factor achieved when using these stitch techniques. I used the Kernel Tuck Stitch (both flat and in the round) as well as 2-color brioche in the round.

As a designer, I’ve been fascinated by handkerchief cowls. I appreciate the simplicity of throwing what essentially is a shawl over my head and not concerning myself with ‘end-management’. I hope you enjoy making and wearing this one as much as I did.

Because I planned to debut this pattern over the NFL’s opening weekend this year, I named the sections after parts of a football game for fun. A great way to show your sportsing spirit is to select colors that represent a team you feel an affinity for and make a Sportsball cowl in those colors. If you post pictures, be sure to tag your team on social media.

I’d love it if you would tag your finished garments and works in progress on social media with the following hashtag:

 #knitworkdesignstudio

Yarn and Gauge:

I used a little more than half a skein of one and just about a half a skein of the other in two different colorways of a fingering weight yarn. A looser gauge may put you closer to jeopardy; a tighter gauge may result in more leftover yarn in your stash. Because this item is not a fitted garment, the gauge is relatively unimportant, except in relation to how much yarn you will need to complete your project.

Gauge

Kernel Tuck Stitch: 17 sts x 24 rows = 4”
Brioche: 14 sts x 24 rows = 4”

Yarn

Fingering Weight Yarn in two contrasting or coordinating colors, 100g each. The yarn I used in this version was an merino/silk blend which has a beautiful drape to it. However, any natural fiber would be a great choice, as the stitch techniques lend themselves to creating a fabric more naturally inclined toward more drape.

Used:
Willamette Valley Wool Company Labyrinth Sock(400yds/100g) –
One skein each in:

Main Color (MC): Purple
Contrasting Color (CC): Deep Forest

This design uses a somewhere between 60-80% of a typical 100g fingering weight yarn in the Main Color and approximately 50% of a typical 100g fingering weight yarn in the Contrast Color.

Contributions

Patterns are not written in a vacuum, and I couldn’t do this without the help of a literal tribe of people. People who test knitted, people who knit samples, others who modeled, tech edited, copy edited, provided resources for a variety of information, people who held my hand, wiped my tears and assuaged my anxiety, people who took photos. Heartfelt thanks goes out to each and every one of them for whatever assistance they provided, intentional or otherwise.

A special thanks to Lynette Connors of Willamette Valley Wool Company for yarn support for this design process.