A Pretty Seam for This Crochet Cowl!

Instead of trying to hide a seam, turn it into a bold beautiful statement.

Invisible Seams are Tricky

There are many ways to seam crochet, whether you slip stitch or single crochet the edges together, or you sew it with a yarn needle. Depending on the edges to be seamed, seaming them together unobtrusively may be impossible—no matter how many different seaming methods you try.

Neck Warmer? 'Seams' Even Trickier!

For my newest cowl, the Burly Bias, I didn't even attempt an invisible seam, for two reasons. First, the seam would most often be worn to the front, as you see above. Yikes.

Second, the stitches are going in two different directions. One edge is along the ends of rows. Normally this is great with Tunisian crochet. Tunisian row ends have a naturally seam-ready chained edge (especially when you do #4 in this list).

The other edge is one complete row (NOT along the ends of rows). In other words, the stitches in the two edges to be seamed are at right angles to each other. They're perpendicular.

Here it is worn sort of sideways.

This seaming situation is really common with the type of cowl called a neck warmer. Slip Tectonics is a great example.

'Seamly' Star Stitches

Do you love it? I'm so glad I used a soft long-striping yarn so that I could pull out a color to use for the star stitch seam.

Now to do this with all the neck warming things!

New Crochet Mobius Cowl Scarf: Scalloped Star Stitch Rib

Cowl crochet fever is back again! 

A larger Starlooper Mobius Cowl warms the shoulders. 
(The contrasting stripes were experiments that I decided
to leave in and see how they'd drape different ways.)

Fewer rows of this Starlooper: a
neckwarmer that overlaps in the front.

When I added a mobius twist to the Starlooper loop scarf, it multiplied the fun ways it drapes around the neck and shoulders. I created a whole "menu" of NINE looks or wearing options.

I love how this cobalt blue merino wool yarn photographed! The star stitches are lovely no matter what but this soft Z-twisted merino yarn adds to the texture. 


Two more photos: the first shows the same Starlooper star stitch pattern in a color-shading yarn.

Starlooper star stitch pattern in a color-shading
yarn by Marks & Kattens.

  This last photo shows a strand of two different colors held together.

Starlooper star stitch pattern crocheted double-stranded.

Two New Slip Stitch Cowl Crochet Patterns

Thaxton Hooded Cowl in thermal Slip Stitch Crochet

The roasty-toastiest cowl I've ever crocheted is also my first cape-like hooded crochet cowl (“snood” is the current trendy definition). 

The Thaxton Hooded Cowl design came to mind after a bitter cold front last winter made my favorite Orbit Cowl feel like mere springtime lace. 

The Thaxton downloadable crochet pattern includes two ways to seam it, and two sizes for using less yarn if desired. 

Thaxton seamed 2nd way: tall cowl quadruple-rolled

Thaxton is so warm because it's: 

• densely ribbed, and 
• stretchy-snug, and 
• half alpaca fiber. The alpaca content of the yarn I used piles on even more warmth, much like angora would. (Alpaca and angora are both warmer than wool.) 

Isn't the raspberry color delicious?

Undaria as 2-skein long twirl scarf

My other new cowl pattern, Undaria FlutterScarf, is a one-skein neck warmer, or a two-skein scarf if you prefer a standard-length long twirler. Scroll down for more views of this versatile flutter-drape!

Draping Undaria 1-skein

Wondering where the name Undaria comes from? Well, it's botanical. 

One of many ways to drape
a 1-skein Undaria

With the gentle sea-green color shifts of this Mini-Mochi yarn I kept thinking of the soft ripples of Wakame seaweed in miso soup. Undaria is the botanical name for a type of seaweed. I also like that “Undaria” sounds similar to “undulating”.

See all of my Slip Stitch Crochet designs. Slip stitches are so fun to design with!

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.