Basketweave Crochet Cowl

Who doesn't love a toasty, thick cowl around their neck? Crazy people, that's who. Because seriously, you'd have to be crazy to not want this cowl. I may be a little biased because I made it and it's green, but who am I to judge myself? That's what I thought. Right.

Here's an embarrassing tidbit about this cowl: I made it over a year ago. A YEAR AGO. And I never took pictures of it. Worse yet, I never gave it to the birthday girl for which I made it. Mahalia. Aka Mufus. Aka my bff since 4th grade. Guh. I know. It's pretty terrible. But, in my defense, right after I made it I got really sick and was soon after diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis so when her birthday rolled around, this beautiful scarf was really not on my mind. And by the time it was on my mind again, we were getting ready to move. So yeah.

I'll stop justifying. I know I'm bad.

The good news is, I did have the foresight to pack it when we moved up here behind the Cheddar Curtain in March. And I even remembered about having it before her birthday was past this year. Woohoo! -highfives self- I sent it off last week and by my calculations...it even arrived a few days before her birthday. What, whaaattt? I never am that good. I guess it doesn't really count as "good" when it's a year overdue. Pfft. Nah. I'll take the victory. -confetti and grape juice all around-

My dear Mahalia's birthday is the first birthday on my list of "important people's birthdays". It's in January. Resolutions and feeling good about making stuff happen are still fresh in my mind so when I (inevitably) forget her birthday....I feel astoundingly horrible. Come on. It's the first chance of the new year to remember a friend's birthday, and I forget? Buh. What a good path to be on for the whole year. I'm glad that this year is different. Even with Pregnancy Brain making remembering extra hard.

Enough about my personal shortcomings, let's talk about baskets!

Basketweave, that is. I love this crochet technique. It's so textural and warm; perfect for using a subtly variegated yarn to make a nice, dense cowl. This is made with Lambs' Pride Wool that was given to me fiveever ago by my favorite yarn fairy. In fact, I still have some of this luscious wool in my stash. Maybe it's time to revisit this stitch...

Wanna make your own? Cool! Learn how to crochet the basket weave stitch, chain a loop as long as you want your cowl to be and get at it! Great instructions, huh? But for real, if you can double crochet, you can make this cowl. Easy peasey wooly squeezey.

Come on, look at that texture. Don't you just want to squish it? And that green. Ugh. Best color ever. Can you tell how badly I wanted to keep it? Pretty badly.

So yummy. Dat green.

Happy Birthday Mufus!! If you are reading this, now you know what an awful friend I am. Haha, juuussttt kiddiiinggg. I'm great. You're great. Happy Birthday.

-Carolyn
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