“Banning books give us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” – Stephen Chbosky

Everyday in America, books are pulled from the shelves of school libraries. Teachers are exiled for reading I Need A New Butt to school children. Harriet the Spy is pulled from the hands of young girls, Where The Sidewalk Ends is quietly removed and hidden in a back room, and Vonnegut is burned in broad daylight on high school campuses.

I have a message for all the terrified men desperate to keep us from getting dangerous ideas:

THANKS FOR THE READING LIST, BOYS.

The cowl is worked in the round from the bottom up, beginning and ending with a ribbed edging. Nearly all parts of the pattern can be easily modified to suit your taste and style, and the pattern includes instructions for adding or removing chart repeats to adjust the circumference/width, and recommendations on where to add or remove rounds to adjust the height.

The Cowl pairs well with insubordination, calling out of work to finish a book that just got really good, and ignoring the opinions of mediocre men.

Click here to purchase the Read Banned Books Cowl now!

If you purchase this pattern via Ravelry, a link to download the PDF will be emailed to you by Ravelry. You don’t need to be a Ravelry member to purchase the pattern, but if you are, the PDF will show up in your library when you use the same email address affiliated with your Ravelry account. To view the Read Banned Books pattern page on Ravelry, click THIS LINK.

Read Banned Books Cowl Pattern Details

Recommended Yarn: Lattes & Llamas Geek-A-Long Yarn (100 grams/ 328 yards) or a comparable sport weight yarn in five contrasting colorways. Sample is shown in ‘Baskerville’ (MC), Cyborg (CC1), Kamala Kahn (CC2), Hep Alien (CC3), and Big Bird (CC4).

MC: 75 grams / 245 yards
CC1:45 grams / 145 yards
CC2, CC3, CC4: 25 grams / 80 yards

Note that adjusting the size of the cowl by adding or removing repeats will impact your final yarn requirements and you should account for that when choosing yarn.

I recommend taking a picture of your yarn and greyscaling the photo to make sure there is a heavy contrast between the MC and CC1 before you begin knitting.

Needles: US5 / 3.75mm and US4 / 3.5mm 16″ circular needles. The cowl could also be worked on 40″ needles using magic loop. I don’t recommend DPNs for this project, but if you want to use them no one is going to stop you.

~ Megan-Anne

Because, fuck them in particular.