It’s been a while since I wrote a post for this blog. It’s also been a while since I completed any crochet, let alone anything that I have designed myself.

A month ago I de-activated my Facebook account and lo-and-behold I suddenly had time to crochet and started completing projects too.

A few weeks ago I bought some wool from Poundland. I’d intended to use it as practice for other projects, it takes well to being unravelled multiple times and is cheap so not the end of the world if a proportion of it ends up in the bin. I’ll admit, I was surprised at the quality of the wool and after I had finished tinkering it seemed a shame just to waste the wool and so designed a couple of winter cowls specifically for the Poundland wool. I love that for the princely sum of £2 (the wool is 3 balls for the price of 2) you can create something rather lovely, and super cosy!

Both patterns are free of charge and the details of the first pattern can be shown below.

Cosy V-Stitch Cowl

Materials:

3 x 50g Poundland Knitting Essentials Aran in Dusky pink 

6.50mm crochet hook

Abbreviations

Ch:  Chain                     sl st:  slip stitch              ch-sp:  chain space

tr:  Treble crochet        sp: space                        st/s:  stitch/es

To work:

Ch 31

Row 1:  tr in 4th ch from hook, 1ch, tr in next ch, *miss next ch, tr in next ch, 1ch, tr in next ch; rep from * across to last 2 ch, miss next ch, tr in last ch, turn

Row 2:  ch3 (counts as tr), tr, ch, tr in each ch-1 space across to last ch-1 space, tr in 3rd ch of turning ch, turn.

Repeat Row 2 until work measures 138cm or desired length. 

I continued until all 3 balls of wool had been used.

Make up:

Fold cowl in half with right sides facing and join the two ends together using a sl-st.  Turn.

Next row: 1ch, 1dc into same space, 1dc across, taking care to join the two ends of the cowel together, matching sts and ch-sp where possible.  Fasten off

Sparkly Shells Cowl

I bought this wool to practice with another design as it was only £1 per ball.  I really loved the wool when I started to work with it, and it seemed a shame to waste it on practice alone.

I used a 5.00mm crochet hook as although I do like a cosy scarf, I don’t like them to be too stiff around my neck and wanted it to be quite soft and flowing.

Materials:

3 x 50g Poundland Knitting Essentials Sparkle DK in Pink

5:00 mm crochet hook

Tension:

21sts = 10cm

12 rows = 10cm

Abbreviations

ch:  chain              ch-sp:  chain space sp: space               tr:  treble crochet  

st/s:  stitch/es      dc:  double crochet

To work:

38ch

Row 1:  dc in 2nd ch from hook, *3ch, miss next 2ch, dc in next ch; rep from * across, turn

Row 2:  3ch (counts as tr), tr in dc at bottom of ch, *dc in next 3-ch loop, 3tr in next dc; rep from * across, ending with 2tr in last dc, turn

Row 3:  1ch, dc in tr at base of 1ch *ch3, miss next 3 sts, dc in next tr; rep from * across, ending with dc in 3rd ch of turning ch, turn.

Rows 2 and 3 form the pattern.

Continue until work measures 127cm ending on Row 3.

Make up:

With right sides together join both ends of cowl with a slip stitch, turn

Next Row:  1ch, 1dc into same sp, *3dc into 3ch sp, making sure to attach the 3 ch from the final row to the 2ch of Row 1, 1dc, matching the dc from final row to base of shell on row 1, rep from * across.  Fasten off

I really hope you enjoy making and wearing these two cosy winter cowls.