Cowls!

I'm kind of obsessed with cowls right now.  In particular I am loving Garter Girl's Burberry Inspired Cowl. So far I have made two, with plans for more in the near future. Both times a added 2 extra pattern repeats more than the one from the original, because I like a slightly longer cowl. Anything shorter feels a little too turtle-neck-y for me.

The first one I made was after I had been knitting for just a couple weeks. It was a actually the first pattern I ever finished! I didn't think it would make much difference if I used a bulkier yarn weight, and so I turned to my stash of Loops & Threads Cozy Wool. It took three balls to finish it, and it came out quite "cozy" indeed:

Really,  not terrible for a first try!  But I wanted to make a sleeker version. I bought some of this lovely Berroco chunky Alpaca yarn for my second run at it, and I think it came out even better:

I actually made this one for a good friend of mine, but had to snap a shot with my creation before giving it away. :) So of course I will need to make another for myself! I would like to find a yarn similar the the one the pattern calls for, which is a merino/ silk blend, but that particular yarn has been discontinued and finding a similar blend in the same weight has been hard to find.

I really like the alpaca but the silk would give a nice sheen to it.

As far as technical execution, I got the hang of the cables pretty well but I didn't have the patience to learn the provisional cast on. Also,  the YouTube tutorial I found on the Kitchener stitch was giving me nightmares, so I decided to heck with a seamless finish, because how hard are people going to be staring at the back of my neck anyway??

But I want to learn those techniques eventually! Anyone have any advice on provisional cast on sand Kitchener stitching??