I know, it’s hard to believe, but not everyone in the world is a knitter. And not everyone who reads my blog is a knitter either. Like my dad.

So my dad came home from work today and the first thing he asked me was “what is that ‘thing’ you posted about on your blog? I don’t know what it is…” Ha ha ha! I’m usually fairly good at explaining the things I make, but I totally forgot to do that on the post about my “Pretty Thing.”

It’s a cowl.

Now that may not help much for someone who is not a knitter, nor lives in a cold climate where you might encounter such an item. So a definition. A cowl is a neckwarmer. It’s a scarf without being a scarf. It’s a tube of knitting you wear around your neck to keep you warm. Most people wear them with their coats to keep their necks warm, or if you don’t live in a cold place (like me) you can wear it on its own with a pretty pin or something. Sometimes a cowl is long enough to go all the way over your head like a hood. Sometimes they are just pretty, like Pretty Thing. For some reason, even though cowls have been around for a long time, they are really REALLY popular this winter, especially with knitters. Of course it’s popular with knitters because it has the benefit of a scarf without the time-consuming knitting of a scarf.

The things you can learn when you hang out with a knitter.

(I’m knitting mittens. Do you know what that is? Probably not if you live in Arizona…)