Knitting without a pattern

I have to say, I’m rather proud of my latest project, not only with how fast I was able to get it finished – a cowl in less than a week – but also with the fact that I set out a challenge for myself and was successful.

There was a bandana cowl I favourited on Ravelry, a paid pattern, and I thought the general structure of this cowl could work well for my Leo and Roxy March Yarn Club.

Wait, let me back up. Have I showed how pretty this yarn is?

Leo and Roxy is a Canadian yarn company, and in December 2020, they announced the themes for their quarterly yarn club. March was Doctor Who themed, so of course I had to order myself a kit. Merry Christmas to me, amirite?

The main colour and its blues are very reminiscent of the TARDIS, although it has greens and greys as well. Those greens and greys, when paired with the purple and red mini skeins, are four of the colours in the Fourth Doctor’s scarf. Basically, I got the yarn and was in love.

So, back to the story of the cowl. I loved the way the cowl I favourited used a main colour and minis in different sections throughout. I set out to use this design as inspiration and simply make my own cowl in a similar manner. I had my pretty main colour, the two minis from the kit, and I had another mini from Leo and Roxy in a mustardy yellow/gold colour in my stash (and wouldn’t you know, that is ANOTHER colour in the Doctor’s scarf). I was ready to start forging my own path.

I’ve made countless bandana cowls. I don’t really need a pattern for these any more. They start just like triangular shawls, although, you get to a point where you want to stop knitting flat and start knitting in the round. Easy peasy.

I got to the sections for the contrast colours; the first section was simple to reverse engineer, and the second took some brain power, but again, a very simple stitch structure to replicate. I then got to a lace section and was CONVINCED this was the point where I would simply make it my own. A bit of time looking at lace patterns and plugging it into Stitch Fiddle later, and that section was reverse engineered as well. Now it was a challenge. There was one particularly tricky section of the cowl, but I have a stitch dictionary boasting a very similar pattern, so the differences are negligible. I was able to essentially recreate this beautiful pattern without a pattern. Me five years ago couldn’t do that. Heck, I wonder if pre-pandemic Me could have (because I’ve spent a LOT of time over these last however months knitting, honing my skills, if you will).

I do have some guilt, that I’ve made this designer’s lovely pattern without actually purchasing it. I have no intentions of recreating this cowl for anyone other than myself. I also read other knitters comparing patterns to recipes. If you want to make Chocolate Chip Cookies, would you need to pay money for a recipe if you have the ingredients and know how to make your own without it? I’ve bought patterns from this designer in the past and likely will again in the future. I will support them.

But this time, I didn’t need the recipe.