Like many knitters, my stash of yarn is out of hand. I’ve got little bits of leftover yarn from old projects laying around. There are random skeins – most of which were given to me by expat knitters who returned to their home countries – tucked away in drawers. Yet, despite all this, I keep buying more! So, for this project, I decided that I wasn’t allowed to purchase any new skeins. Nope, this time I would have to use up some of my stash. Thus, the Nokori Cowl was born.

“Nokori” is a Japanese word meaning remnant, remaining, or left-over. This project was inspired by a photo of a multi-coloured cowl I came across in a magazine once, and it was made entirely with left-over yarn. Because of the various colours and textures, this cowl really shines when it’s wrapped double around your neck. When worn like this the colour changes seems to come out of nowhere, making for a super unique accessory.

This is also the first original pattern I’m posting here – I hope you like it! I’m entirely new to writing patterns, so if anything is unclear or you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!

~ THE PATTERN ~

Go through your stash of leftover yarn and choose some colours that you think work well together. I chose 5 for my cowl, but feel free to experiment! Also, because the length of each section could be restricted by how much yarn you have in each colour, feel free to play around with that as well. Just make sure that the final length of your cowl is about 120cm. For my cowl, the best gauge for all my yarn was 5 stitches per inch (2.54cm) in stockinette; however, if you’re using yarn that varies greatly in weight, you might find a that a different gauge suits your project better. Once again, because this project is meant to be made with leftover yarn, you’ll need to do some experimenting!

Using a provisional cast-on, CO 40 stitches of your first colour.

Row 1 (right side): (k, p) three times, knit to the last six stitches, (p, k) three times.

Row 2 (wrong side): (p, k) three times, purl to the last six stitches, (k, p) three times.

Continue to work these two rows (will end up being stockinette with 1×1 ribbing on the edges) until the work measures about 40cm, ending on Row 2.

Change to your second colour.

Knit the first row.

Knit the second colour in seed stitch for 5cm.

Change to your third colour.

Follow the steps for the first colour (stockinette with 1×1 ribbing on the edges), but only knit until the work measures 25 cm.

Change to your fourth colour.

Knit in garter stitch for 20cm.

Change back to your first colour.

Follow the steps for the first colour (stockinette with 1×1 ribbing on the edges), but only knit until the work measures 10cm.

Change to your fifth colour.

Knit in garter stitch for 20cm.

(At this point some of my colours were curling, so I choose to block them in sections before I grafted the pieces together. Should you want to do this, you can use a spray bottle to target certain areas instead of soaking the entire piece. Of course, you can choose to block the entire thing as well!)

Using the kitchener stitch graft the ends together, weave in your loose ends, and you’re done!

Photos for this post are by Aaron Nathanson. To see the rest of the photos from this shoot
or to check out his other work, visit his flickr site and facebook page.