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Play with the Pleats and Ladders Cowl
This reversible cowl is surprisingly easy to knit and adapt to other yarns. We’ve got 3 ways to make it your own (and you might have these yarns in your stash)!
This reversible cowl is surprisingly easy to knit and adapt to other yarns. We’ve got 3 ways to make it your own (and you might have these yarns in your stash)! <a href="https://farmfiberknits.com/play-with-the-pleats-and-ladders-cowl/">Continue reading.</a>
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Make the Pleats and Ladders Cowl your own! Yarns from top left: Studio Donegal Marl Soft, Morehouse Merino 2-Ply Sport, and Wing & A Prayer Farm Peter Pan + Fam. Photos by Kate Larson
We published the Pleats and Ladders Cowl just over a year ago on our website, and we have now added it to the Farm & Fiber Knits Library to make it more accessible. The original version was such a treat to knit in three naturally dyed skeins from Wing & A Prayer Farm yarn. Even my little ewe Lola was impressed (see her photo bomb below).
Kate loved knitting the Pleats and Ladders Cowl in farm yarn from Wing & A Prayer Farm: Three skeins of Peter Pan + Fam 3-Ply. Can you see Lola’s big curious ears?
3 Ways to Make It Your Own
As both an editor and designer, I think it is so important to bring you accessories that can be easily adapted to the yarn you want to use. Whether you want to invest in a few small-batch skeins from a farm, or pull a few great oddments out of stash, or discover a fabulous natural-fiber yarn from your local yarn store, I want to make it easy for you to adjust a basic pattern to highlight the yarn. Without further ado, I’ll show you three alternative yarns I’m planning to knit with this ever-adaptible, reversible, easy-to-memorize pattern!
1. Change the Gauge
This pattern is super easy to adjust to any gauge yarn you’d like to use. With a repeating 6-stitch
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We published the Pleats and Ladders Cowl just over a year ago on our website, and we have now added it to the Farm & Fiber Knits Library to make it more accessible. The original version was such a treat to knit in three naturally dyed skeins from Wing & A Prayer Farm yarn. Even my little ewe Lola was impressed (see her photo bomb below).
Kate loved knitting the Pleats and Ladders Cowl in farm yarn from Wing & A Prayer Farm: Three skeins of Peter Pan + Fam 3-Ply. Can you see Lola’s big curious ears?
3 Ways to Make It Your Own
As both an editor and designer, I think it is so important to bring you accessories that can be easily adapted to the yarn you want to use. Whether you want to invest in a few small-batch skeins from a farm, or pull a few great oddments out of stash, or discover a fabulous natural-fiber yarn from your local yarn store, I want to make it easy for you to adjust a basic pattern to highlight the yarn. Without further ado, I’ll show you three alternative yarns I’m planning to knit with this ever-adaptible, reversible, easy-to-memorize pattern!
1. Change the Gauge
This pattern is super easy to adjust to any gauge yarn you’d like to use. With a repeating 6-stitch[PAYWALL] block motif, you can easily add more or fewer cast-on stitches as long as it is a multiple of 6. The original uses a light worsted-weight yarn, but I’ve just swatched with a luxurious sportweight from Morehouse Merino. Cozy, lightweight, and next-to-skin soft for nearly anyone, this would be such a fun handmade gift.
The original cowl is knitted in a robust three-ply and knitted into a nice fabric at 3.5 sts/in in pattern. 2-Ply Sport Merino is shown here at 4.5 sts/in. Adjusting the pattern for a finer yarn is easy.
The original cowl is knitted in a robust three-ply and knitted into a nice fabric at 3.5 sts/in in pattern, and the two-ply sportweight Merino knitted up at 4.5 sts/in in pattern. To get the same length cowl (62 inches), I would multiply my gauge by the length, and round to a multiple of 6—276 would work quite well.
2. Go with a Gradient
If I don’t want to change the gauge, but I want to play with color, this kind of double-wrapped cowl is stunning in a gradient yarn. When you twist the cowl to put it on, the color stripes mix in such a pleasing way. Since this stitch motif is reversible, you don’t have to fuss with right-sides or wrong-sides—just wrap and go.
I’ve been petting this gorgeous ball of baby alpaca yarn from HiKoo for ages, wondering what it would like to be when it grows up. Concentric knits up at the same gauge as the orginal pattern for me and has almost the very same yardage. I used about 350 yards, and Concentric has 400 yards per ball. To get all four colors of the gradient into the cowl, knitting one more repeat of the pattern should be about right.
One ball of Concentric from HiKoo has 400 yards of gradient colors. The construction is a good fit for baby alpaca: Four loosely twisted plies that each contain two plies. This builds in some extra loft while reducing pilling potential.
3. More Texture!
The pleating pattern motif is clear and crisp when worked in a smooth yarn, but that doesn’t mean you have to go that way. I like that this stitch pattern incorporates knits and purls to create a reversible fabric that doesn’t roll, and some eyelets and decreases that add some movement and airiness. All of those qualities will still be added to a project even if the motif is less distinct.
Marl Soft from Studio Donegal is a rustic, woolen-spun yarn that comes in a great range of colors.
I’ve had this color of Marl Soft from Studio Donegal on my list for a project since I knitted a set of swatches last year. (See “Textured Tweed, Textured Stitches: 4 Tips for Knitted Bliss.”) Marl Soft is the same gauge as Studio Donegal’s Soft line, so there is a great palette of colors to choose from to create a stripe motif.
Change your gauge, colors, and textures to make this your own! Our library pages allow you to load comments and images, and we would love to see your work!
— Kate
Resources
Wing & A Prayer Farm Peter Pan + Fam 3-Ply
Morehouse Merino 2-Ply Sport
HiKoo Concentric
Studio Donegal Marl Soft
Kate Larson (she/her) is Senior Editor of Farm & Fiber Knits. For nearly as long as Kate has been handspinning and knitting, she has been helping others find their paths as makers and forge deeper connections with the landscapes that produce the wool and cotton, flax, and silk that they hold in their hands. While Kate has published a book, many articles and patterns, and several instructional videos, she especially loves celebrating the work of other fiber folks. The editor of Spin Off from 2018–2025, she directs spinning events in addition to editing Farm & Fiber Knits. If you can’t find Kate, she’s most likely in the barn having a chat with her beloved Border Leicester sheep.
