Cozy Crocheted Cowl

It's been a few weeks, a whole month in fact, since I posted about my work in progress but I've finally finished it.  It didn't take me a whole month to complete - I've just been a bit lazy about taking a picture of it.  The nice thing about crochet projects is that you can stop anywhere in the process and pick it right back up whenever you have time.  I probably never sat and continuously worked on this project for more than 20 minutes at a time.

I think my work in progress picture showed you what it looked like when it was about a third of the way done and as promised, this is what the completed cowl looks like and I'll explain how it was made.

I rarely, if ever, follow a pattern when I'm crocheting something (except for when making beanies) so this one I kind of made up as I went along.  I started out with a ball of Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn in Aqua that I picked up from Michaels.  It's a worsted weight acrylic yarn, so if you wanted the same look there are probably a variety of options at your local craft store.  This ball of yarn was 277 yards and I used just under that for the entire cowl (I love projects where I don't have to join a new ball of yarn!). 

I don't like having to count my crochet stitches, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not very good at it.  Consequently, when I'm making a cowl or a scarf, I create my foundation chain until I think it's as long as I want the item to be.  My cowl ended up being about 30 inches in circumference.  The number of stitches in your foundation chain will also depend on the hook size that you use.  The packaging on the yarn recommended a 5mm hook (H hook) but I wanted a loose fabric so I used a 6.5mm hook (K hook).  This gives it a more chunky look, which is pretty popular right now.

Once my chain was to my desired length, I joined both ends with a slip stitch.  This is the tricky part because you want to make sure that the chain is not twisted at all.  After the slip stitch, I chained one and began crocheting in a crumpled pattern, which is just alternating a single crochet with a double crochet.  I went all the way around until I got back to the beginning of the row and then slip stitched the beginning of the row to the end and chained one to move up to the next row. 

That is the stitch pattern I used for the entire project, except for the last four rows, which I changed to a single crochet alternated with a half double crochet.  This resulted in a slightly denser fabric, which gives the cowl a little more structure if that side is up but I ended up liking how the cowl laid better turned the other way.  The height of the cowl ended up being about 12 inches.  It's nice and cozy just hung around your neck but you could also put it over your head for a hood for those rainy fall days. 

This is a great way to add a lovely pop of color to your wardrobe.  Definitely something I need because I tend to buy a lot of black and gray clothes.  Hope you enjoyed this little project.  I've got other crochet ideas floating around in my head right now so I hope you'll come back to check them out. 

Thanks for reading!

Michelle