Free knitting patterns for cowls designed to use up leftover and scrap yarn. Updated 5/4/24
To get the knitting patterns, scroll down the page to the individual pattern you want and click on the link to that pattern.
These patterns are not my designs but links to other designers who have generously shared their patterns. If you have questions about how to knit a specific pattern, please contact the designer directly.
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Free Patterns
Forest Animal Cowl
Knit a woodland scene reminiscent of tapestries with your scrap yarn starting with sun and clouds, followed by birds, trees, squirrels, rabbits, deer, hedgehogs, flowers, ladybugs, mushrooms, and fish, surrounded by leafy vines. The pattern also includes a version with dinosaurs. Fingering weight of yarn. Designed by Geriellen Dow.
Gladstone Temperature Cowl
Easy tubular stash buster cowl that tracks the changing seasons of an entire year. Knit one round per day in the colour corresponding to that day’s temperature and enjoy this wearable work of art! Fingering weight of yarn. Designed by Galt House of Yarn.
Flashdance Cowl
Stash buster cowl knit with a 2 round repeat with gradient shifts between colors. Designed for 10 colors mini skeins, it's also a perfect stash buster for leftover yarn. Fingering weight of yarn. Designed by Amazing Threads.
Dots and Dashes Cowl
Stash buster cowl designed with two 8 round repeat slipped stitch color patterns using only one color per round. Perfect stash buster for using orphan balls. It works with pretty much any weight of yarn. Designed by Melody Johnson.
Marigram Cowl
Inspired by the incoming tide, this cowl is knit with wave lace in gradient stripes of 6 colors. 2 sizes, short or long. Stash buster for Fingering weight yarn. Designed by Debbie Sullivan.
Yarn Leftover Chunky Cowl
Easy beautiful, one-of-a-kind, chunky snood made with leftover yarn. Designed by Yana Smolina.
Clarabelle Cowl
Clarabelle is a name of Latin origin that translates to “bright” and “beautiful” just like this striped cowl knit in the round in all knit stitches. Designed for 6 colors, it's a great stash buster for DK weight yarn. Designed by Angeline Webb of Knitrelief Designs.
Hopscotch Cowl
Cowl knit with cog like stripes created with stranded colorwork. Designed for 8 colors, it's a perfect stash buster for DK weight yarn. Designed by Irina Poludnenko.
Day Dreamer Cowl
Cowl knit with garter stitch stripes. Designed for 8 colors, it's a perfect stash buster for DK weight of yarn. Designed by Pippin Poppycock.
Trapezoid Cowl
Cowl in two sizes, longer and short, with trapezoid sections shaped with short rows. Designed for 5 colors, it's a perfect stash buster for DK weight of yarn. Designed by Elizabeth Fallone.
More Free Patterns
Ticket To Ride Cowl
Striped stash buster cowl designed to use up all of those treasured yarn remnants with borders in a solid color. This neckwarmer is knit flat and then buttoned to form a triangular front cowl. DK weight yarn. Designed by Angeline Webb. May only be free for a limited time.
Pic N Mix Cowl
This cowl is perfect for scrap or leftover yarn! Knit in a 12 stitch 22 row repeat of a geometric stranded design. Example is knit with 15 miniballs. This cowl is knitted in the round as a tube and the ends seamed or grafted. Designed by Clare Hutchinson for Knitty.
Skein Hash Cowl
Infinity scarf designed to be knit with leftover stash and scrap yarn. Knit flat in a garter stitch chevron on the bias. Designed for fingering weight yarn but adaptable to other weights. Designed by Sybil R
DaPunzel Neckwarmer
Triangle shaped scarf with braided edge and stripes that are perfect to use up scrap yarn. Fingering yarn. Designed by Finja Hansen. Available in German and English, but the English is not always clear, so you might want to check the project notes of other knitters and the video she mentions.
Hawthorne Street Cowl
Reversible cowl knit in stripes of varying widths separated with three simple rows of colorwork to transition from one color to the next. Designed for 7 colors (or more), it’s a great use for leftover yarn. DK yarn. Designed by Holli Adams Samet
- Get the free knitting pattern
- Get the recommended HiKoo Llamor yarn on Amazon
- See Colorful Cowl Knitting Patterns
Create your own ball of yarn by knotting leftover bits of sock yarn for this cowl. This infinity cowl is knit in a tube so all the knots and stray ends are hidden in the tube’s interior. Designed by Jana Pihota of Hipknitzer
All That Jazz Cowl
This stranded and fair isle cowl was designed for up to 16 colors of DK yarn but can be adapted to any number as few as 4 or 5 so it’s perfect for scrap or stash yarn. Designed by TheTwistedYarn. Pictured project at top is by NaugyKnits who used 13 colors.
Patterns for Purchase
Weston Loop
Stunning cowl with striped garter stitch that flows into stripes of rippled lace and finished with the lace shaped border. Designed for 5 colors, it's great for stash busting fingering weight yarn. Designed by Carina Spencer.
Misha Cowl
Easy garter stitch cowl designed for leftover yarn so it's a great stash buster. Worsted or Bulky weight yarn. Designed by Grace Rose.
Whitman Sampler Cowl
Infinity scarf cowl knit in garter stitch on the bias. Designed for 4 to 8 colors, this is a great use for scrap or stash yarn. Designed by Nancy Whitman.
Scrap Cowl
Designed for leftover yarn, this slipped stitch jaquard stitch is much easier than it looks. Knit in stripes of the same color for 5 rows but the slipped stitches make it look like more complex colorwork. Size is easily customized. Designed by Irina Eberhardt. Worsted weight yarn.
Greenwich Cowl
Buttoned neckwarmer with fringe. Great for stash and leftover yarn. Designed by AuntJanetsDesigns
Easy Dunkelbunt Cowl
This colorful cowl is worked flat in mosaic / slip stitch colorwork. A great way to use up leftover yarn in your stash!
Coral Reef Cowl
A great stash buster, this shoulder cozy cowl is knit using slip stitches, with only one colour worked at a time, with a picot edge. Designed for mini skeins, it's also a great way too use up fingering weight scraps. Designed by Bea Naretto.
Surplus Stripes Cowl and Mitts
Stash buster set for striped fingerless mitts, the mittens, and cowl. This pattern is ideal for using up leftover scraps of worsted weight yarn. Designed by Bonnie Sennott.
