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!

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.

New Crochet Cowls for Fall

Here are two very new crochet designs for cowls that I'm seeing around the 'net. They're just right for early Fall:

Red Circle © Bernadette Ambergen

Doesn't Bernadette Ambergen's Red Circle look like fun to crochet and to wear? Her downloadable pattern PDF is available for $5 in her Etsy shop, Berniolies Designs. 

Tuni Trio Cowl © Caron International

Cari Clement designed Tuni Trio Cowl, an easy Tunisian crochet cowl. Its fun colorwork method looks stylish for Fall. Not only that, it's a free crochet pattern! 


I've done this three-color Tunisian crochet method, and it's addictive. This is a great time to get hooked on it if you haven't tried it yet.
Happy crocheting everyone!

Simple Tunisian Crochet Cowls in Alpaca Yarns

I found a blog today that is written in Norwegian. I wish I could read Norwegian, but Google Translate gives me a good enough sense of what the blogger, Stella Marie Tveter, has to say about her Tunisian crochet designs.














Try this link if you'd like to see what I mean. In the original language, here are all of her posts tagged with "hakkekrok," which seems to mean "Tunisian crochet."

Don't you love the beauty of the handpainted colors when worked in Tunisian Simple Stitch? And when worn as a head scarf, the alpaca yarn in this cozy gauge and stitch surely keeps ears warm.

Stella designs for Du Store Alpakka, and I found some Tunisian crochet on their blog. Here are their posts tagged with "Hakking."

Du Store Alpakka produced a wonderful book teaching a variety of crochet techniques, all shown in luscious alpaca yarns. You can see the Google-translated description here. Look at the end of the post for links to more information in Ravelry.

New Tunisian Crochet Cowl Scarf

Rimply the edgy, one-skein, big-hook neck warmer is packin' some Heat-Trapping Technology:

Worsted-weight Rimply

You're looking at familiar, by-the-book Tunisian Knit Stitch, crocheted not-so-by-the-book to fortify it with stretchy padded goodness. That violet one above is for DK-to-Worsted Weight yarn and an L (8mm) Tunisian crochet hook. The grey one below is for Aran/Heavy Worsted Weight yarn and an M (9mm)Tunisian crochet hook. (Instantly downloadable pattern is written for both options.)

One edge has extra stretch built in so that it flares comfortably....seductively, even?....at the lower neck as it widens for the shoulders.  However, check out how the grey aran weight one looks when it's worn upside down! The stretchier edge is the top edge of the scarflet now:

Chunky-weight Rimply (upside down 🔄)

More photos of both versions can be seen in Rimply's Flickr set.

Rimply is named for its thermal pockets, or "rimples"—a little used term that I like reviving.

Making it as long and as wide as you prefer is easy. In fact, I fantasize about an oversized muffler-type, or even a capelet-type wrapper. So warm and squishy-soft omg.

Links to Two New Crochet Cowl Designs

I'm setting down my crochet hook for a moment to mention a few links you might be interested in.

• There's a new MUST SEE crochet cowl but I have not posted a photo here yet because I'm waiting for permission. It's the "Crocodile Stitch Neckwarmer" by Lianka of Bonita Patterns. A photo of it and the pattern are available at that link. I think of this neckwarmer as being a very close relative of the cowl.

• There's a MUST SEE Norwegian crochet pattern book that you can page through online here: http://www.dustorealpakka.com/oppskrifter_temahefter.shtml   You'll see a sprinkling of crochet cowls, all crocheted in luscious alpaca yarns (from what I can tell from a bit of Norwegian I've picked up); be sure to see the fine-textured Tunisian Simple Stitch cowl on page 40. Or, see it in Ravelry here.

• Lastly, if you missed it, my latest Crochet Inspirations newsletter was all about crocheting cowls. It’s online and you can view it here. It’s free so if you like it, you can subscribe by clicking on the link at the very top of the page, or see other past issues. It comes out every other Thursday.

When you see me here again in a day or two, it will be because Chainmaille, my newest crochet cowl pattern, is ready!