Week 4: Book Review: Cowl Girls

Hello everyone! Thanks for all of the great participation in these giveaways! I'm glad that you are enjoying the reviews! I picked another winner from last weeks drawing. Congratulations j*e*n!

This week I will be reviewing the book Cowl Girls; The neck's big thing to knit by Cathy Carron. And it's at this point that my cursor remains stagnant blinking at me on the screen. What can I say about Cowl Girls? I feel so conflicted by positive and.. um... "less positive" feelings while I flip through its pages.

Let me start off by saying that I really do love cowls. In my opinion, they are the perfect neck warming accessory and I find them easy to knit and very stylish. 

This book contains pretty much everything you would want to know about the cowl. I especially enjoyed pages 10-13 which cover all of the cowl basics. It explains what the differences are between cowls, gaiters, dickeys, snoods, and more. I have always wondered such things, so I really enjoyed this section. It also gives you three different methods to use when knitting up your cowl. I think this would be very helpful information for a beginning knitter.

The rest of the book contains 40 patterns for "neck-wear accessories". While the book kind of lumps all of these patterns into the "cowl" catagory, some are more fashion accessories then functional knitwear.

There are definitely some patterns that I genuinely like in here and could see myself wearing. Here are a few of my favorites.

But honestly, there are other patterns in this book that leave me scratching my head in confusion.

Keep in mind that I am a very conservative and boring person. :)

But if you really like bright colors and funky styles, you will probably love these patterns. 

I do have to say that I am impressed by how inventive some of these designs are. 

There are shapes and textures that I would have never imagined.

There are also many cowls knit up out of bulky yarns, making them probably super quick to knit up and great for beginners.

If you would like a chance to add this copy of Cowl Girls provided by Sixth and Spring Books to your personal knitting library, please leave a comment (only one per person please) under this blog post. Remember to please include your contact information in your comment.

I will be choosing and announcing the winner next week! So be sure to check back! :)