Romney: Cable Knitted ‘Owlers’ Cowl

Hello everyone, my computer has had problems for the past couple of weeks, so I have been unable to blog. It is temporarily fixed so, at least for now I can post again.

Inspired by the rich history of smuggling associated with Romney Marsh I decided at least one project I made from Romney wool should pay homage to this. In 2020 I purchased the cable button collar knitting pattern from the Wensleydale Longwool shop at virtual fibre east. I had never knitted cable before and the central pattern on the cowl reminded me of an owls face and eyes. I felt this would be a brilliant way to symbolise the ‘owlers’ of Romney Marsh.

I won’t go into details of the pattern as it is linked above, however I did change the button hole placement as I couldn’t seem to get them evenly spaced and the right width on my cowl following the pattern (probably to do with the fact that I was using handspun Romney fleece instead of the Wensleydale its designed for). Having never knitted cable before I found it was very easy to follow and the Romney wool has a stiffness about it that helps show off the cable pattern and keep its shape.

After knitting the cowl, the next stage was to add some buttons. This proved to be the hardest part of the process as no matter how many buttons I tried, I wasn’t quite happy with them. I wanted the cowl to have a natural look, so I decided to make my own buttons. These were made by sawing three sections of a small fallen branch of the required diameter, sanding them down either side and then oiling them to finish. When they were dry I could sew them onto the cowl as per the instructions. These are the first wooden buttons I have ever made, so if anyone has any tips, do let me know in the comments.

Although it’s taken me a year to finally put the finishing touches on this project, I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. The cabling makes it a very thick fabric so it’s incredibly warm and will be perfect when winter comes again.

Happy Crafting!