I have far too much wool!….Hi my name’s Beth and I’m a ‘woolaholic’.

I buy skeins and skeins of the stuff, in all different thicknesses, textures and colours without much regard for what I’ll use it for! It’s these balls of wool that normally get left to the bottom of the pile, gathering dust until one day I’m struck with a little inspiration.

I’ve had this green speckled wool in my possession since I began knitting almost three years ago. It began its life as a massively oversized and badly ‘gauged’ infinity scarf in seed stitch, which I promptly unravelled. I then remade it into a slightly better gauged stockinette infinity scarf, but it still wasn’t the right size! It was like something out of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’….

Then, two months ago I picked up my nemesis green wool and some 12mm needles and just started knitting! You know what they say – third time lucky.

I used double strands of Sidar Click Chunky wool to make it extra thick and warm for the winter months. Double seed stitch (or double moss stitch) was my pattern of choice as you end up with a lovely dense finish – perfect to wrap up in.

I cast on 40 stitches and knitted enough rows to create a snug slipover cowl. The wool I used was 7sts x 9rows to 4 inches on 12mm needles.

With the leftover yarn, I chose to make some handwarmers to match, but this time using simple seed stitch. For these I adapted Purl Soho’s pattern here for the gauge I needed and added a knit/purl rib cuff. Happy knitting!