Ten Crochet Cowls for Men!

Photo ©Patrick Hassel-Zein

Run right over to CrochetBlogger's Crochet Concupiscence blog post for a great photo series of ten men in manly crochet cowls! 


To whet your appetite, an eleventh is pictured at left: Robin's Hood, a hooded Tunisian crochet design by Patrick Hassel-Zein. 


Patrick is a 2011 nominee for the Crochet Liberation Front's Flamie Awards for Best New Crochet Designer and Best Crochet Designer of Mens Wear. 


Robin's Hood is part of a Tunisian crochet pattern book in English here, in Icelandic here, and in Swedish here.

A Crochet Cowl to Offer Comfort

Drew Emborsky designed a new crochet cowl wrap! The pattern is now available as part of The Crochet Dude's brand-new book, Hug It Out: Nine Crochet Designs to Offer Comfort. (see book cover below.)


I know from previous cowl blog posts that a soft, generous-size mobius is a very popular cowl style. It can be worn several ways with effortless grace to warm the neck, shoulders, and more. Its comfort adds easy style.

 See Hug it Out at Amazon.com

I asked Drew to tell me more about his new cowl design. 
He wrote, 
"I created this cowl because of all the great ways it can be worn. Especially for someone with mobility issues, it's nice to be able to wrap the shoulders without the bulkiness of a shawl, have a fluffy scarf just by pulling it up around the neck, then going right to a hoodie if the need arises - all without having to swing a crocheted garment around themselves. And even with all that function, I hope it makes her feel pretty too!!"

The Perfect Stitch for Fall Crochet Cowls!

- - Free Crochet Pattern Alert! see below - -

Slip Tectonics Cowl combines two kinds of slip stitches so that it
is self-shaping. This gives it easy-chic looks and comfort.

Thaxton Hood Cowl

I'm in love with my new cowls made with the super stretchy, warm, soft, snug, and stylish crochet slip stitch ribbing. Especially in short row wedges! So, I've created a free crochet pattern called "Slip Slope Scarf" to help introduce this technique, see below.

Short rows and slipped stitches are both much more common in knitting than crochet. Together they make magic for crochet cowls.

Slip Slope Scarf (free pattern)
Pattern includes guidelines for making a
 loop scarf & moebius-style infinity scarf. 

In crochet, combining slip stitches and short rows is rare. When I do see crochet short rows, it's more often for "soakers" (diaper covers) in regular crochet, and for Tunisian crochet. 


The few short-rowed slip stitch designs I've found so far have been for hats--and I can see why! What a fabulous fabric for toasty hats that keep ears covered!

Side view of the self-shaping  
Slip Tectonics Cowl  

(For some examples of these non-cowl short row designs, see my Crochet Inspirations Newsletter Issue #29.)

Slip Slope Scarf
as scarf

Personally I prefer to wear cowls as hat-like hoods when I need them. Also, right now I'm loving the new textures and color patterning I can do with crochet slip stitch rib short rows worked flat, rather than in the round as hats usually are. That's where I'm at in my crochetin' journey.


Below is a photo from my free online tutorial. It shows the slip stitch short rows in progress.