The Fanfare Cowl

I am so thrilled to be able to share my cowl here, and be a part of the design team!

This cowl was designed for the UK magazine, Inside Crochet, issue #8.  It is made up of simple stitches, and finished up with a little surface crochet  to define the "pleats".  I think this detail is its crowning glory.  Surface crochet is one of my favorite crochet techniques, and I use it often in my designs and freeform work.  This pattern is a great introduction to this technique if you have never tried it.

It is a versatile pattern that could be used to make a belt, by adjusting the length and width of the cowl and the tie.  You could also weave satin ribbon or a skinny silk scarf through the cowl, instead of the crocheted tie, for an instant transformation to match a particular outfit.

Skill level:  Intermediate

(Written in US crochet terms)

MATERIALS:

Yarn:  Berroco Inca Gold, 80% 

merino wool, 20% silk, 50g/ 113m/ 

122yds, WPI 9. 

Color A: Verde Azulado, #6418 

(one skein). 

Color B: Purpura, #6409 (one 

skein). 

Hook size:  (G) 4mm, or size to 

obtain gauge. 


Price:  $2.95

The Transitional Mobius Cowl According to Doris Chan

Snow Day as Snood (Hood)

Snow Day as Loop Scarf

A Doris J. Chan Cowl

Ms. Doris caught the cowl-crocheting bug and check out the result: it's the perfect transitional neckwarmer-shoulderwarmer-snood/hood, as practical in a wintry cold snap as it is pleasurable during a Spring thaw. Read about her inspiration for it here.

True or False: Möbius?

Moebius geeks purists connoisseurs please note: it's a true möbius (deserving of the umlaut ö). 

Snow Day is the newest addition to DJC, the new indie crochet patterns designed by Doris Chan. She also has another pattern line just for girls called DJC2, and will be adding a new design in a week or two. I'm proud to be able to offer both of Doris' indie pattern lines at my own online shop for downloadable crochet pattern pdf's.


One of the things I personally like about Doris' style of pattern publishing is how she builds in a lot of choices and swatch results in fibers and yarn textures so that you can make informed choices about the yarn you use. 

Stay in the Doris Chan Loop

Snow Day as Mobius Wrap

Keep up with all new Doris Chan crochet pattern releases three ways: 


1. Check Doris' blog Everyday Crochet


2. Check in with her Ravelry group, Doris Chan: Everyday Crochet


3. Subscribe to the DesigningVashti Crochet Inspirations Newsletter, then sit back and wait for a new issue to arrive by email every month.

Snow Day shown in a Silk-Cotton-Rayon blend yarn

"Nine to Five" Convertible Crochet Cowl

Designer Janet Brani of OneLoopShy Designs emailed me in January to let me know of a crochet cowl pattern that's available as a FREE pdf download at her Ravelry store.

Some notable details about Janet's cowl are:

• A detachable buttoned tab of Tunisian knit stitch
• Pattern includes a crochet flower than can be buttoned onto the tab as optional embellishment (see third photo below)
• A two-hour one skein project using a US G crochet hook
• Yarn shown is Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold, which seems to be popular--several designers have used it lately. One skein has 192 yards (175 meters), in case you wish to substitute with yarn in your stash.

Janet Brani holds the copyright to all 3 images.

I'm just now getting back into the blogging swing of things, so be looking for more blog posts soon! Thanks for visiting -- Vashti

Some really COOL cowl wrapping ideas

I know this pattern is knitting, BUT  look at some of the really NEAT ideas they have to wear one of the longer cowls.  I really like the shrug look!

Here is the pattern

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.

Child's Crochet Cowl & Wristlets, A Free Pattern

Happy Week Two of 2011! Yes, I'm slowly recovering from the holidays. How about a free crochet pattern to kick off the new year?

Kristine Mullen has designed Snow Princess Cowl & Wristlets and the full pattern can be found at her blog, Ambassador Crochet. It's sized to fit preteens and younger. Kristine notes that it's an easy enough pattern for beginning crocheters too.

Isn't this a great photo of a Snow Princess with her own crochet cowl and wristlets set?

So, as promised a little while ago...a free pattern! This is my Hairpin Lace Infinity Scarf...a type of cowl! My Christmas present to all of you! If you happen to make one, drop me a line and a pic to post on my Reader's Gallery! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New Free Crochet Cowl Pattern Today

Fresh off the crochet hook is Carol Wolf's warm cowl with a lot of drape and luster. It's called Roli's Cowl and the pattern was posted today at her Wolf Crochet blog:

She used 300-400 yards of a sport weight bamboo blend. Nice job, Carol!
Here's the Ravelry page for Roli's Cowl.

Free Crochet Cowl Patterns!

Free crochet cowl patterns galore! Crocheting is fast, and even the smaller 1-skein cowls can be plenty warm, so there's still plenty of time to crochet cowls for Christmas gifts.

Free Indie Patterns for Small, Quick Cowls

Deb Burger's free 1-skein cowl-to-hat design

Deb Burger's free one-skein crochet cowl converts into a hat (photo by Deborah E. Burger). How cool is that? When you click on this link, please explore the free online Crochet Uncut magazine. You can see 37 or so projects here.

Newest news: Beth of Displaced Moose has a free new downloadable crochet cowl pattern!

Elizabeth Ann White offers one at her website; you can see another without fringe at its Ravelry page. (Be sure to also check out the 17 projects made from the pattern so far. Some are even smaller in size.)

Free Indie Patterns for Larger Cowls
About the more generous-sized cowls, Cheryl Brown of Purple Butterfly tweeted: "I love the cowls that cover my shoulders and b/c I also love shawls, ponchos and wraps I feel it is all in one." I agree with Cheryl--when I wear Orbit, I enjoy it like it's a wrap, only more so.

Suzana Davidovic of Croatia recently uploaded a free pattern for a larger crochet cowl to Ravelry. It uses about 400 yards of sport weight yarn and an I/5.5mm crochet hook.

Stephanie of The Crimson Owl published a free cowl pattern on her blog last year and I've seen people are talking about it again this year in online forums. Also see her follow up post about it, and its Ravelry page with 333 projects listed. Yes: 333!

Free Cowl Patterns from Yarn Companies
My crochet friend and Crochet Inspirations Newsletter subscriber Eleanor Lahn wrote to me about Lion Brand's cowl patterns: "Lion Brand’s latest newsletter has a link to all 60+ of their cowl patterns. I think Lion Brand has done as much as anyone to promote cowls in the past year -- they have lots of clever patterns." Thanks for pointing it out, Eleanor! Here's the link. (Some knit patterns are mixed in with the crochet)

Paradores

Aspen

Caron (scroll through projects to see cowls and scarflets). I especially like Aspen, designed by Kim Guzman and Tammy Hildebrand's Paradores Infinity Scarf.

Red Heart Yarns by Coats & Clark has a few free patterns for crochet cowls here.

Bernat's Cluster Cowl

Bernat has a lovely new free crochet cowl pattern called "Cluster Cowl" in an alpaca blend yarn. (Note that you have to become a member of the site (it's free) to access the free patterns.)

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.

Some Crochet Cowls Around the Web

1) Heidi Heisl has an Etsy shop where she offers a PDF pattern for a "Mammoth Crochet Cowl." It makes the "eternity scarf"-type of cowl look very warm and fun to wear--you just coil it around as many times as you like and it would fit around the bulkiest coat collars.

ALERT - ALERT -  FREE CROCHET PATTERN  - ALERT - ALERT 

2) Go check out Angryolive's Twisted Cowl. This one's a mobius-style cowl. (In this case, that special mobius twist is created after the crocheting, when you seam it.) The pattern is right there at angryolive's livejournal page.


3) And finally, have a look at this hooded cowl for men. OK yes, it's knitted--machine knitted I'm sure. But wouldn't it be fun and easy to crochet?

Everyone keeping their necks warm? It's cold even here in Florida!

New Release: Crochet a Spiraling Orbit Cowl!

Crocheting this mesh rib stitch in a spiral sure has momentum! I really picked up speed while crocheting it: no joining, no turning, no counting stitches to slow things down.

To make it even more addictive, you only crochet into every other stitch, and this makes for an especially soft, stretchy cowl-neckscarf-capelet-hooded-shoulderwarmer-snood-wimple-thing.

The Orbit Cowl crochet pattern is fully customizable and includes the "how-tos" along the way. You can see some styling and color editing experiments in its online photo album.

I'm just now thinking that I could have written it for many yarn weights! The one shown uses an "aran-weight" (kind of "chunky weight" or heavy worsted) and a J-US10-6mm crochet hook. (Isn't it great how the self-striping yarn* looks?) The customizing how-tos in the pattern should help with substituting any yarn.

Well, dangnabbit: why not go super chunky? A big crochet hook too--probably bigger than an L, say an M or N (9mm or 10mm) crochet hook. The 'orbiting' ribs would certainly make a statement, huh?


*Crystal Palace Mochi Plus (80% merino wool, 20% nylon): 300 yards were needed for the size shown.
I also uploaded it to my Ravelry Store today.

Update

It's been 2 or 3 years since I wrote this post. It turns out that I wear Orbit more often than most of the others I've crocheted. I added a drawstring at the neck opening. I also often wear it pulled up like a hood. (When I wear a different cowl, it's when there's a fierce biting wind. That's when I turn to the wind-blocking Thaxton hood.)

Crochet a "Lariat Cowl"

What a fun idea! I was minding my own business sipping an Americano with a bit of vanilla sugar, and I received a Google Alert for "crochet cowls patterns." When I saw "Lariat of Roses" I had to click.

The designer is Emi Harrington and she has an Etsy shop called Hectanooga here. You can check out the photo and pattern particulars here. Here's what it says in the description:

"VERY EASY, BEGINNER LEVEL, LARIAT OF ROSES.
This pattern can be made up in about 45 minutes!
It is all done in one continuous strip."

This design gets poetry points for blurring distinctions between cowls, necklaces, and scarves, and also for the heady "Lariat of Roses" name :-)

Now I'm going back to getting another crochet cowl pattern of my own ready for release this week. Maybe today! And a Tunisian cowl soon.

Icelandic Cowl

Icelandic Cowl started as a beautiful ball of Madeline Tosh- Tosh Sock in the colorway Iceberg.The name of the cowl is just a play on the colorway name.
Again, this cowl showcases my love for the mobius.  It also works from the center out using a 2 row repeat and finishes with a beautiful scalloped edging. The yarn has a subtle monochromatic variegation to it which in my minds eye gives the look of sunlight rippling on ice.
This cowl is sized in Small (40 inch Bust) Medium (46 inch Bust) and Large (53 inch Bust)
Wear it as a shawl, cowl or even twist up to cover your ears.
You can purchase this shawl on Patternfish or Ravelry for $6.00

New Crochet Moebius Cowl Pattern Released

Crochet designer Lindsey Stephens just released a new moebius cowl pattern on her website. It's called Schönen Herbst (BeautifulAutumn) Möbius Scarf and is shown in sport weight merino wool. You can see more images and find out more information here:
http://www.poetryinyarn.com/pages/10_0010C.html .

To find out more about Lindsey and see more of her designs, visit her Ravelry designs page, check out her blog, or follow her in Twitter.

Presenting Chainmaille, a Crocheted Cowl-Scarf-Neckwarmer

I so love this stitch pattern—how chic in a luxe metallic-looking alpaca yarn!
Feels like liquid chain mail.

I have just released “Chainmaille Cowl, Neckwarmer, & Men's Long Scarf”. Pattern includes these 3 project types plus information for customizing. Download the pdf crochet pattern:

https://designingvashti.com/product/chainmaille-cowl-mens-scarf/

Like all of my crochet patterns, this one includes an exclusive link to a photo album of alternate views, swatches, close ups, etc. A few of the photos are visible to anyone here. 

Click the album link from within the pattern, and yeah baby: max pics with more added as they happen. Forever.

Twisty Cowl - design notes and a question!

The idea for this cowl had been kicking around in my brain for some time before I actually put hook to yarn. I had designed a knitted cowl with a simple stitch pattern in a funnel shape and it was way more successful than I had anticipated, so I wanted to use the same principals in a crochet design.

I had the perfect yarn - a jumbo hank of Baby Twist by Alpaca with a Twist. Baby Twist is soft enough for next-to-your-neck wearing, and because it is a DK weight, it would look good in a variety of hook sizes/gauges. Because the jumbo skein has over 500 yards, I knew I could make a whole project with just one skein!

So, bottom up, because I wanted to establish the stitch pattern quickly, then achieve the funnel shape by decreasing hook sizes as I stitched.

Choosing a stitch pattern took some time - I wanted it to be easy to stitch but look interesting. And alpaca yarn is VERY warm - so I wanted to have a little but of openwork so that the wearer wouldn't suffocate if she lived in a place wear sub-zero temperatures are not the norm, but of course if it was too open, it wouldn't be warm at all! I settled on this double crochet cross stitch pattern.

While I had originally planned for no decrease stitching at all, I had pretty much gotten to the smallest hook I could use prettily with this stitch, but I still wanted a closer fit at the neck. So I added a couple of rows of decreasing. I think that at this point in the pattern, the stitch is so intuitive that even a beginning crocheter could handle the decreases.

Now for the question - how far down over your shoulders do you want your cowl to go? My model is 5'5" tall and wears and adult small - you can see that the bottom edge of the cowl just covers her shoulders. Yet a friend of mine who is close to my height (5'10" with proportional should width!) said she would like to make it wider at the bottom so it would cover more of her shoulders. What do you think? How wide do you want your cowl to be? I am genuinely curious, as the width question had never occurred to me - I prefer my cowls to sit on top of my shoulders!

Twisty Cowl is available for download at Patternfish.com, and in print versions through your local yarn store, and the Patternworks catalog.

Photographing Crochet Cowls

I never hear a peep from my mannequin, Lindsay, no matter how long she has to stand there while I drape crochet on her every which way. OK yes, she doesn't have a head, but I think I would know if she grew restless. I'm sure it helps that whenever I make myself a mocha, I make one for her too.

If you haven't tried it (mochas and draping cowls on a patient mannequin), it's worth it! I see new ways to wrap stitches around a neck and shoulders, and new places to put a button or shawl pin. Like with the one shown here, I wonder about a toggle or two? Or short ribbon ties, or a buckling-latching thing?

Let's "face" it, headless models are not ideal for photographing cowls, so I try to be creative, learning something daily about this kind of accessory.

For example, today I tried dressing the mannequin in a black silk camisole--the opposite of a heavy winter coat, then tried different kinds of cowls on her.

The crochet cowl experiment you see here is all about the stitch. It's a deliciously spongy double-faced pattern I came up with on my own. In pure bulky wool and a big hook it's nearly an inch thick!! It's one full 3.5oz/100g skein of Patons Classic Wool Roving (Bulky weight, 120yd/109m). It calls for a USJ/10/6mm crochet hook and I used an M/9mm. I wish I'd gotten a few more rows out of that skein, but it does fit as a 'gaiter'-type cowl more than one way.

The yarn is vivid Christmas red, which caused my camera to blur the stitches no matter what I did. I had to cool off the red with editing tools just to see the stitches! Then I played around some more to get the version you see here.


Please please leave comments if you have any tips, feedback, commiserating about photographing crochet cowls! It just isn't like photographing other crochet projects.

Purple Tide Cowl

Thanks to Vashti for letting be blog here about some of my cowl designs! I have several and will be blogging about them now and in the future. This is my Purple Tide Cowl, so called because it uses a stitch pattern that looks like waves up close. This particular model is created from Malabrigo's Silky Merino. Yummo, is all I can say! I love me some Malabrigo! This cowl is deep enough to be pulled up over the head to cover your ears. The stitch pattern is easy, and if you pick a fabulous yarn, you will have a gift that you can whip up in just a couple of hours; of course, you might like it so much once it's done, that you won't want to gift it! This pattern is one of the designs from my upcoming book, "Crochet, Naturally!", which features crochet projects made from all natural yarns. Look for it on Amazon after the first of the year. My next cowl will include a link to a free pattern, so stay tuned!

Simple Pattern, Popular Results!

The Soulful Seas Mobius Cowl came into being last winter when the owner of my LYS, Great Yarns! asked me to create something other than socks with Conjoined Creations Flat Feet Yarn.

After perusing the color choices, and with hand dyed yarns there are PLENTY, I chose this gorgeous blue that reminded me of the sea.  With only 400 yards of sock weight yarn, what could I make?

As a computer geek, math and all its complexities has always been of interest to me.  From geometry to computer programing, Math has always been a part of my life.  As much as I even complain about grading garment patterns, I always end up caught in the math.  The mobius shape, the symbol of infinity, always was a favorite.  Thus the cowl was born.

Made with a simple pattern stitch (just 2 repeated rows!) the cowl can be worn in a multitude of ways.  Wear it as a shawl around the shoulders.  Wrap it around the head to keep warm.  Loop it twice around the neck to keep warm. Or even just hanging down as a long continuous scarf with no end.

What I love about this pattern?  It grows from the center out.. there is NO SEWING other than burying the ends at the beginning and end.

The pattern is now available from Ravelry and Patternfish for Download! $6.00