The Brooke Cowl

A good friend has been craving something warm and brown for winter. Sounds cozy to me. I finally got around to making it happen for her. Turns out, she'll have lots of options for how she wears this thing (and now I want one).

If you want to know how to make one--it takes about four White Collar shows, or one movie long to make. A two-hour craft for a 3-way style? works for me. Instructions below.



I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky (which I just discovered is machine washable & dryable!), in 127 Walnut. This lovely brown almost has a tweedy feel to it, with a red hint throughout. I used a K (6.5) crochet hook.

This is where it gets fairly unscientific. I just made chains until I thought it was long enough. It turns out I must have made 204 chains, because, the way I constructed it, it came out to 100 double crochets per row.

Because this is a cowl/scarf, it doesn't end up very long, and it's designed to wrap around the neck, so I did a double crochet every other chain for my first row of DC. In all, I made 9 rows of DC, and fastened off.

Side tip on how I get the yarn into my darning needle--perhaps this common knowledge:

See how making the extra chains give the scarf a slight curve?

Now: time to figure out the button situation. AKA time to start grinning maniacally. It turns out I have a lot of buttons. Everywhere. But this is my favorite treasure trove:

My initial options:

It's important that the button be able to fit through the stitches:

I ended up choosing these, and red embroidery thread to secure them:

To make the sure the buttons were spaced evenly, I counted rows and stitches. The top buttons were on row two, stitch 4 & stitch 13. The bottom buttons were on the second to bottom row, same stitches.

To secure the buttons I:

Thread through

I tie a knot once I make the first pass through

And, I tie a knot once I've secured the button with 3-4 pass-throughs

One easy cowl, several great ways to style.

And... a funny picture of me glowering. I guess. Whatever it is, I shouldn't do it a lot. Perhaps J had just said something annoying...

chesha

I'll be posting at these sites:

Monday:
http://keepingitsimplecrafts.com

Tuesday:
http://www.adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com

Wednesday:
http://mygirlishwhims.com

Thursday:
http://thecraftyblogstalker.com

Friday:
http://shabbynest.blogspot.com
http://fivedaysfiveways.com

Sunday:
http://flamingotoes.com
http://itsoverflowing.com
http://twiggstudios.com