Did you immediately fall in love with the Endless Woods Cowl, purchase the pattern, and now you have no idea what yarn to use? Continue reading for color recommendations using Hearts on Fiber yarn (that's the yarn that I used), for affordable yarn recommendations, and for a list of resources to search for other yarns that will work for the pattern!
Extremely soft and cozy, the Endless Woods Cowl is a fun textured knit witth textures symbolizing the woods of North Carolina. The primary features are a cabled section representing the roots that lay beneath the forest floor, and a fun slipped cross stitch motif designed to look like a tree. (Actually, there are five tree motifs! You can choose to knit one or all five for your forest.)
I designed the cowl using Hearts on Fiber's amazingly cozy weight mohair/silk yarn held double with their MCN sock base (fingering weight). The yarns I used for my main pattern sample were Mangrove Forest (fingering weight) and Mahogany (mohair/silk). Hearts on Fiber currently has this color combination available in a kit specifically for the pattern. (Note: the kit does not include the pattern.) Also note that the colors that I received where much deeper than the their photo (the stand alone photo of the yarn) is showing. This color combination was the perfect combination to represent the woods, with its deep browns and true green colors!
(Learn more about the design inspiration here.)
Note: All yarn images are from the credited websites.
I also knit up a second sample using Mohogany (fingering) and Foggy Forest (mohair).
Hearts on Fiber Colors
My favorite way to select colors when using a mohair is to pick two contrasting colors that share a color, perhaps as speckles or just a light hint of that color. But you don't want that color to be the main color of both the fingering weight and the mohair, or they will just blend (although, if that's the look you're going for, it's also beautiful!). But if you're wanting your mohair to really stand out, you don't want the colors too similar. Also keep in mind that typically any colors that are extremely dark (i.e. black) tend to hide the texture of a pattern more than light colors.
If you're reading this post around the time of the pattern release (November 2020), Hearts on Fiber has put together three additional color combinations as kit for the cowl! All of these combinations are listed together here.
And here are some additional color combinations that I think would also look lovely with the Endless Woods Cowl! The way I've presented them is by showing what I would choose for the fingering weight color on the left and the mohair color on the right. That said, in many cases I could hardly decide which should be the mohair and which should be the fingering!
If you can't decide, it really comes down to the mood you want to create with the cowl. What I've found is that, when the mohair is the darker color, the overall color is more bold, and it feels like the mohair takes more dominance over the resulting color. When the mohair is the lighter color, it gives a softer, dreamier look with the lighter halo.
See the colors that I used as an example. My main sample is more bold (with the darker mohair), and the second sample is more dreamy (with the lighter mohair).
Click the photo to view each of the colorways below on Hearts and Fiber's website.
Big Sister & Lavender
Full Moon & Hydrangea
Full Moon & Poison Apple
Mesa Canyon & Blodreina
Cereal Milk & Little Sister
Tiger Lily & Sk8er Boy
Blue Skies & Sk8er Boy
Snowy Owl & Kings Carpet
Another option is to use DK weight instead of fingering held double with mohair. Here are a few colors that would look great with the Endless Woods Cowl, but they are so many great options, that you really ought to check out the Hearts on Fiber website for yourself :)
Alternative Yarns List
Can't afford hand-dyed yarn? I completely understand! That is A-OK! Here I've selected a list of more affordable mohair alternatives, fingering, and DK weight yarns that would also work with this design! (Note: I am not affiliated with any of the links -- I am just providing this list for your reference.)
I've provided a few bits of information on each yarn for your own comparison. All prices shown are USD and do not account for shipping costs. The list is ordered from least expensive to most expensive per gram for each section. For the sake of comparison, I've written everything in terms of 100 grams (50 grams for the mohair). The yarns with yardages and fiber content most similar to the yarn that I used typically create the most similar fabrics to the original design.
The yarn that I used was: 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon; 400 yds / 100 grams held double with 72% Kid Mohair, 28% Silky; 459 yds /100 grams.
Lace Weight Mohair Yarns
75% Mohair, 25% Silk; 460 yds/50 grams; $11.60/50 grams
72% Super Kid Mohair, 28% Silk; 520 yds/50 grams; $17.98/50 grams
72% Kid Mohair, 28% Mulberry Silk; 460 yds/50 grams; $17.98/50 grams
Fingering Weight Yarns
80% Acrylic, 10% Polyamide,10% Mohair; 447 yds/100 grams; $5.87/100 grams
75% Wool, 25% Nylon; 436 yds/100 grams; $10.98/100 grams
75% Merino/25% Nylon; 462 yds/100 grams; $11.98/100 grams
75% Merino/25% Silk; 440 yds/100 grams; $15.98/100 grams
DK Weight Yarns
100% Acrylic; 273 yards/100 grams; $4.50/100 grams
50% Acrylic, 50% Nylon; 231 yards/100 grams; $8/100 grams
100% Wool; 246 yards/100 grams; $12/100 grams
55% Wool, 25% Alpaca, 20% Tweed; 246 yards/100 grams; $14/100 grams
70% Wool, 30% Silk; 246 yards/100 grams; $16/100 grams
