It’s Time To Complete Your BiCrafty Boot Camp First Knit Cowl! (Knitting Lessons for Crocheters, Lesson 10)

Congratulations! If you’ve followed along with BiCrafty Boot Camp then you’ve made it all the way to Lesson 10. You are definitely a knitter now! We’ve been working on our first knit cowl. You’ve practiced lots of different stitches. Now it’s time to wrap up this cowl and get ready to begin the complementary knit hat that we’ll start next week. We are all so proud of you!

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Your First Knit Cowl Free Pattern

Just to recap, here’s what we’ve done so far with this first knit cowl free pattern:

• You used Size 8 (5 mm) 24″ circular knitting needles and worsted weight yarn. With that, you did a long tail cast on of 140 stitches.
• Next, you started off this first knit cowl by learning how to knit K1, P1 ribbing in the round. You did that for approximately 1″ – 1.5″ of length.
• After that, you learned how to knit seed stitch in the round. Again, you added about 1″ – 1.5″ of this new stitch to your sampler stitch cowl.
• Next, you added rounds of double moss stitch. Moreover, if you wanted to, then you learned how to Sl1Pyb and incorporated another extra credit section into your crochet cowl.
• Finally, last week, you learned how to knit seersucker stitch as well as long slip texture stitch. And you kept growing your first knit cowl with those.

Now it’s time to wrap up your first knit cowl. However, you have some options to personalize this and make it your own.

Options to Finish Your First Knit Cowl

Personally, I think that if you’ve finished each of the parts of the knit cowl to date, then the cowl is the right length to finish it up. We’re going to finish it the way that we started it: with 1″ – 1.5″ of knit K1, P1 ribbing. However, if you want to make your cowl longer or to personalize it in any way then here’s your chance. Some options:

• Repeat all of the previous sections in order to double the length of your first knit cowl.
• Choose one or more of the stitches that we’ve practiced to add new rounds to the cowl.
• Find a new knit stitch pattern that you like. Test yourself to see if you can work it on your own. Just remember that the pattern needs to have a stitch multiple that works with our cast on of 140 for this cowl.

Last Portion of First Knit Cowl Free Pattern

When you’re ready, we can wrap up this cowl. And you already know what to do:

• Add 1″ – 1.5″ off K1, P1 ribbing. Instructions here if you’ve forgotten.
• Finish with on extra knit round.
• Bind off all of the stitches knitwise. (Remember, that just means that you insert the hook as you would for a knit stitch.) Reminder: how to cast off.

Shout Out to Sponsor: Prym

Just a reminder that this month we’ve been working with Prym’s knitting needles here on the BiCrafty Boot Camp team. Look out for a full review post soon. And you’ll also soon see our Month Two BiCrafty Boot Camp Team thoughts post! Can you believe we’ve all come so far?! If you want to get your own Prym knitting needles or learn more about them, here’s their American website.

Prep Work for Next Week’s BiCrafty Boot Camp Lesson

As you know, we’re going to keep building upon these skills. In fact, we’re going to take what we’ve learned making this cowl and apply it to making a complementary knit hat. Here’s what you’ll need in order to work on those June lessons with us:

• Size 7 16″ circular needles
• Size 8 16″ circular needles
• Size 7 DPNs
• Size 8 DPNs
• Worsted weight yarn (preferably in a few different colors so that you can work some colorwork on the hat but one color is fine if that’s all that you have.)

Crocheter’s Edge

If you’ve worked on a sampler stitch project in crochet then you should have a good feeling about where you’re at with this knit cowl. And if you’ve ever adapted a crochet pattern to suit your liking, then this week you should enjoy being able to pick and choose how you finish your knit cowl in a way that feels right for you.

Also, if you know how to block your work then you should feel comfortable blocking this knit cowl once it’s off your needles if you choose to do so.

Knitter’s Tips for Crocheters

There are no big secrets from the knitters this week. The main thing is to remember that binding off is a bigger process in knitting than is finishing a project in crochet. You’ve already done it on your smaller projects, like the washcloth. Therefore, you know what you’re doing. Just take extra care to bind off each stitch as you wrap up this project.