3 spiral conch cowl

here's the recipe for those who have the book "the Opinionated Knitter" of Elizabeth Zimmermann and want to make a cowl to go with it.
it is based on the same stitch.

this cowl is designed to sit on the base of the shoulders and taper naturaly due to change of needle sizes.
it is tapered up at the neck so that it doesn't "fall" and hide the spiralling.

option 2) you may of course chose to have it wide on the top too by using the bigger size needle for the top garter stitch too and then you'd sew your conch shell to cinch or not.

you need:
10 mm circular needles
7 mm circular needles
a 5 mm hook

using circular needles size 10mm you will be starting by casting the same number of stitches as per the book for 5 rows in garter stitch, back and forth.
you will then proceed to get the stitches to be 60 as per the book.

using the 7 mm needles, proceed to knit 15 rows as per pattern.
turn work to start working in garter stitch back and forth and work this way:
WS: *K1 K2Tog* repeat till end of row = 40 stitches (using size 7 mm needles)
RS: knit
WS: knit
RS: BO all stitches using size 10 mm needles leaving a 15 cm yarn length.

stitch the casting on rows of garter stitch ridges.

with size 5 mm hook and the remaining 15 cms chain enough to fit your conch shell in for closure, i chained for 3 cms.

sew a pierced conch shell (naturaly pierced or drilled) on the facing side with a rugged yarn (i felted mine a bit) of the same color as the shell ( i used white) and knot in front.
i chose for my knot to be seen.

enjoy your cowl
if you make one of those, i'd be happy if you left me a comment with a link to your photo.