A walk around Hanwell (with cowls)

Two things you may have noticed if you follow this blog and look at my designs - one, I love designing a cowl, and two, the wonderful place where I live, Hanwell, W7, in West London, is very important to me! I've been sporadically working on a collection of cowls which will eventually be brought together in an e-book, but are being made available on Ravelry as they're released (anyone who buys a pattern now will get a discount off the e-book when it's available).

I'll also be using the patterns to gradually introduce you to some interesting places in Hanwell, starting today with the Wharncliffe Viaduct. This masterpiece of engineering was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of his Great Western Railway, and it's also the perfect backdrop for my Harviestoun Cowl.

(c) David Jollie

The cowl is a surprisingly simple design using mock cables and twisted stitches, knitted in Artesano Nebula - it's actually named after a Scottish brewery who make a lovely ale called Bitter and Twisted.

I moved to the rather spectacular underside of the viaduct to photograph my Skillion Cowl, a ribbed cowl with a slant in cosy Artesano Aran.

(c) David Jollie

The viaduct's arches are home to a colony of bats, who sadly didn't make an appearance for the pictures, so for a spot of animal magic we headed to the nearby Brent Lodge Park Animal Centre, Hanwell's own mini-zoo, where we found the ideal co-star for the pictures of the Wakefield Cowl. This cowl is perfect for a self-striping yarn and I knitted it in a gorgeous yarn called Freia Flux Sport, a handpainted yarn I picked up in Loop in Islington.

(c) David Jollie

Mr P the Peacock's fabulous colours set off the cowl perfectly!

There'll be more cowls, and more Hanwell locations, in 2015.