Knitting the Radost cowl from Knitworthy 5

Perfect for keeping your neck warm on windy days without having to worry about the ends of a shawl or scarf coming loose. Radost is worked from the top down, starting with a neat folded edge worked using a provisional cast on. It knits up quickly with small sections of garter and brioche stitch and makes a great first brioche project. Increases at the centre front create a flattering and cosy bandana shape — it looks a bit strange flat but drapes perfectly when worn. Shown in Cyrano from De Rerum Natura, a round, 5ply structure that creates well-defined stitches and deeply textured ribs.

The tutorial for Radost is provided below. If you want to learn more about brioche knitting, or prefer videos sign up to our Knit a Brioche Accessory Course, which includes all the skills needed to knit Radost alongside 4 other stylish brioche projects. 

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Knitting the Radost Cowl

The Radost cowl from Knitworthy 5 begins with a neat edging that's really just a very narrow folded hem. It makes a clean, sturdy finish that I love for garter stitch. The first step is to cast on using a provisional method with scrap yarn. My favourite method is to work a crochet chain around the needle. I have a full tutorial here and I also took a quick video while I was casting on Radost so you can see how quick this method is (with practice!)

After casting on you knit across the stitches in the working yarn and join it in the round.

After several rounds the cast on is undone and the resulting live stitches are returned to the smaller needle.

The needles are held with the left tips parallel so that the knitting folds up on itself with the RS facing out. You knit around knitting each stitch from the larger needle together with a stitch from the smaller needle behind.

There's then a nice mindless section of garter stitch until you get to the brioche. The first set-up round (round 36 in the pattern) is worked as follows: Round 2 (round 37 in the pattern): Round 3: To maintain the ribbed nature of the brioche stitch a pair of stitches need to be added with each increase. On round 39 a brp-yo-brp is worked at the centre of the cowl as follows: The next increase is worked on a brk round so a brk-yo-brk is worked: Binding off brioche can be tricky. A regular bind-off can create a messy, ruffled edge. On Radost I worked a sewn tubular bind-off, aka an Italian bind-off. There are two ways to work this bind-off which essentially involves grafting the knit stitches to the purl stitches. The easier way to do this requires more set-up: the knit and purl stitches are slipped to two separate needles before grafting. Here's a tutorial for that method, for Radost you'll simply treat the sl1yos as purl stitches, working the yarn overs and purls together as for a brp.

The faster method is shown on Radost in the video below; rather than slipping the stitches to separate needles you graft them on one needle. I strongly recommend making a note of where you were in the sequence if you need to stop in the middle! 

The full sequence that's repeated is:

Into the 1st knit stitch purlwise;

*Into the 1st purl stitch knitwise, going behind the 1st knit stitch;

Into the 1st knit stitch knitwise, slip it off;

Into the next knit stitch purlwise;

Into the 1st purl stitch purlwise, slip it off;

rep from * to end.