reverse rice stitch cowl

Here's the back story for my cowl. This past August, something happened that made my husband feel badly for me. I honestly cannot remember what that something was. I'm going to guess he felt badly that I was sleep deprived and overwhelmed as a new mother of 3 because that was how I felt just about every day last summer (and now).

So, my husband came home from work with a beautiful skein of hand dyed alpaca yarn from a local farm. He had stopped at a farmer's market during the day and had bought me a little treat to make me feel better. If I'm remembering correctly, I believe he also brought me home some lobster, and at the time I was too embarrassed by his generosity to tell him that my parents had already taken me out for lobster earlier in the day. But I got over my embarrassment quickly and enjoyed the dinner he brought me.

On to the cowl: I wanted to make sure that I knit the yarn he gave me into something special. I spent some time looking online at different stitch patterns and came across the rice stitch. What I liked about rice stitch is that the right and wrong sides of the fabric are different but equally beautiful. I designed the cowl to be worn with either the right or wrong sides facing out. Either way will work. In all honesty, though, I find myself liking the "wrong" side of the cowl more.

This is one of the first knit items I've ever designed myself, and I'm really happy with the results. The picot edge was a last minute decision as I was binding off and I think it adds another layer of texture to the cowl.

The "wrong" side first:

The rice stitch:

I will post a pattern for the cowl as soon as I get it written up.