Cappuccino Cowl

Inspiration strikes in the oddest places.

On Saturday we went out for lunch at our local cafe. It's an independent business, and we like it as we can walk or cycle there, and go to the park on the way home. Plus, the food is great and not too pricey. As we left the house I grabbed some notebooks and pens to amuse the Little People during our meal.

Lunch was lovely - veggie brekkie for hubby, sausage and chips for the Little Peeps, and a goats' cheese salad for me. For afters the Little People had ice-cream (with squirty cream and sprinkles, obviously) and coffees for us. Well, mine was a tea (but we'll come back to that) which I asked for in a to-go cup. The cup had one of those cardboard sleeves on it, with wiggly vertical grooves. Well, they were begging to be coloured in, so I made the Little Peeps share the pens, and while they slurped their ice-cream, I pimped up my cup. Although the selection of pens I'd brought was rubbish (there wasn't even a red for goodness' sake) I do enjoy a bit of doodling and colouring.

On the way home we swung by the park for a bit (spot the grubby plaster-cast coloured mitt anyone ?) and as I sipped my cuppa to warm myself up, the old creative cogs began to whirr. Hmmm. Doesn't that cup actually look quite good ? Aren't those colours together quite pleasing ? Wouldn't they make a jolly nice colourway for a new scarf or scarf-like thing ? 

As soon as we got home I headed for the yarn cupboard and looked for just the right colours. My Stylecraft stash yielded four of the five that I wanted, and for the fifth - the pink - I had a Paton's yarn, the Stylecraft pinks that I had weren't quite right.

I made a really simple granny-stripe cowl, it's quite straightforward but I'll add the pattern at the end of this post, there's nothing worse than thinking "I'd like to make that" and then being uncertain about where to begin (totally flattering myself that anyone might like to make something similar). 

A pattern of two rows of each colour, and then the whole thing repeated.

Working in a granny pattern of groups of three trebles is so relaxing, I find I don't really have to think much about it, so it's a good background activity to do whilst chatting or watching telly.

The colours are really unusual for me, not a red nor a purple  in sight. I used Stylecraft Special DK in (from the bottom of above photo) Mocha, Meadow, Spice, and Camel. The pink is Patons Fab DK in Candy. 

I'm calling it the Cappucino Cowl. The Tea Cowl doesn't sound as good. Actually it sounds a lot like tea-towel. Cappucino Cowl it is then.

There are no decent photos of me wearing it, or of its full length, as the light is so dodgy at the time of year. But it looks quite delicious rolled up, I think. And I wore it today - it's very cosy :)

Isn't it great how you can draw inspiration even from a pack of random and mostly-dried-up pens :)

Cappucino or a cuppa anyone ?

Cappucino Cowl Pattern

5 colours of DK yarn

5mm hook

Note: pattern is in UK terminology

Abbreviations:

sl-st slip-stitch

ch chain

ch-space chain-space

dc double-crochet

tr treble-crochet

Chain 257. (Counts as 256 ch plus 1 dc)

Row 1 : dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc in every st to end.

              sl-st to top of first dc of previous round, to form a loop (ensure work is not twisted)

Row 2: ch 3, 2tr in st at base of ch3, (skip 3, ch 1, 3tr in next st) to end. ch 1, sl-st to top of ch3.

Row 3: ch 3, 2tr in ch-space at base of ch3, (ch 1, 3tr in next ch-space) to end. ch 1, sl-st to top of ch3. Fasten off.

Row 4: with new colour , join in any ch-space. ch 3, 2tr in ch-space at base of ch3, (ch 1, 3tr in next st) to end. ch 1, sl-st to top of ch3.

Row 5: ch 3, 2tr in ch-space at base of ch3, (ch 1, 3tr in next st) to end. ch 1, sl-st to top of ch3. Fasten off.

Row 6-22: repeat rows 4-5, changing colour every 2 rows. **

Row 23: ch1, dc in every st to end

To finish:

Use the loose end of yarn at the very start to slipstitch or sew onto the end of the foundation row of chains, this closes the little gap that was left.

Sew in all ends.

Block or press lightly with a medium iron, depending on care instructions for your yarn

** I changed yarn after every two rows of granny trebles, so my pattern was 

- dc row in Mocha

- 10 granny rows in (mocha, mocha, meadow, meadow, spice, spice, camel, camel, pink, pink) twice

- 2 more rows of granny trebles in mocha

- finished with a dc row in mocha