Seven More Triple Luxe Cowls!

Yes, you read that right. I’ve crocheted seven more Triple Luxe Cowls. Only one was for me! The others were Christmas gifts. Here’s a quick rundown of the latest seven I made:

Basic Black

Come winter, I wear a scarf all day long, pretty much every day. (My office is usually too cold for my liking.) While I love and wear the two previous scarves I crocheted for myself, I still found myself reaching for my tired old jersey infinity scarf several times a week. Why? It’s black, and black goes with everything. I knew I needed to crochet myself a black scarf, even though it’s not a fun or exciting color. Then, I stumbled across a cute local yarn store: All Wound Up. It was full of lovely, colorful yarn. However, inspired by my previous Wardrobe Architect efforts, I stuck to my resolution to make a black scarf and picked up some nice, sensible Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn in Cast Iron. They even caked it for me, which was nice. Even though it’s a bulky (5) yarn, it did not have as much body as the Lion Brand Woolspun yarn. I had to crochet 18 rows to make it as wide as my blue scarf. It was a little boring to work on, but as expected, I wear it often.

Fancy Black

My grandma is pretty glam for an octogenarian, so I knew her yarn had to be special. At Michael’s, I found this super bulky (6) Isaac Mizrahi CRAFT Carlyle Yarn that was black with gold highlights. I managed fifteen rows for this one, and then ran out of yarn. It’s super soft. Sadly, I thought I had taken pictures of it before I sent it off, but apparently I did not.

Avocado, Aquamarine, Periwinkle, Purple, and City Lights Mix

For the other five, I used the Lion Brand Woolspun yarn called for in the pattern. The various colors I chose were Avocado, Aquamarine, Periwinkle, Purple, and City Lights Mix. It’s a nice, reliable yarn and I had a lot of fun crocheting all the different colors, according to the recipients’ tastes. The City Lights Mix skeins are smaller than the solid skeins, so I did a bit of crochet math and figured out that if I chained stitched 110 instead of 120, I would have enough yarn for sixteen rows. It worked like a charm! I might do that again and any subsequent cowls, because both the Avocado and Periwinkle ones ended up at fifteen rows, because I ran out of yarn.

I still love this pattern, even after making it nine times so far. Even so, now that the Christmas giving season is over, I’m going to try my hand at a new pattern or two.

Mommy and Me Triple Luxe Cowls

Behold, my favorite crochet pattern to date! After finishing my Scarfie, I surfed the web until I found the Triple Luxe Cowl from All About Ami. It’s free, and calls for bulky Lion Brand Woolspun yarn, which is readily available at my local Michael’s. One of the things that initially drew me to this pattern was that Stephanie describes the pattern in simple, everyday language with lots of pictures before giving you the traditional “coded” pattern. Since reading crochet patterns is still a challenge for me, I found the explanations and pictures super helpful. I think part of my previous problems with crochet stemmed from the fact that my instinct is to stitch in the third loop, and without pictures, I didn’t notice that I was doing it wrong. For this pattern, you’re supposed to stitch in the third loop, so no issues there.

For the blue Triple Luxe Cowl, I read through the everyday language directions and set to work. I was so into it that I forgot to make the seam and crocheted the whole thing in one continuous round. I don’t think the jagged top is all that noticeable in the end. For this cowl, I used Lion Brand Woolspun in Royal Blue. It’s very snuggly and warm and I really enjoy wearing it.

While I was working on the blue cowl, my daughter requested one for herself. After some debate, we settled on pink. I wanted to use something a little softer than Woolspun for my daughter’s cowl, since she is so particular about what she wears. I returned to my trusty local Michael’s store and picked up two skeins of Loops & Threads Charisma yarn in Think Pink. While it is indeed softer, the stitch definition isn’t as good, so I prefer Woolspun for this pattern.

To make a child-sized cowl, I chained 90 instead of 120 at the beginning, and stitched 12 rows instead of 16. This time, I remembered the seam. Since I had already made the pattern once before, I was able to puzzle through the traditional pattern well enough. If I were to do it over again, I would make it even smaller, because this one has a tendency to slip off my daughter’s shoulders when she runs and plays. Nevertheless, my daughter loves her new cowl and wears it often.

I really enjoyed crocheting these Triple Luxe Cowls and have already started another one for myself. I am also now an avid follower of All About Ami and look forward to trying another one of her patterns someday. Her crocheted accessories seem distinctly modern to me. I consider myself a modern quilter, and I’d like to be a modern crocheter as well. However, I’ve had a hard time finding more modern crochet blogs to follow, and would welcome any suggestions you may have, dear readers. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy this pattern.