Holiday Inspired Crochet Part 3 - The Whitstable Cowl

This post is coming a little later than expected as I have been recovering from a back injury, which has put a spanner in the works for some time. I am pleased to say I am fully mobile now, picking up the pieces and now plan to catch up with my blog!

This post is the last in my 'Holiday Inspired Crochet' stories. I hope you enjoy it and that you are inspired to use the pattern too. If so, please share your makes over on Facebook or on Instagram #cottonpod - it is always fun to see everyone's crochet triumphs!

The pattern is basically called the Whitstable cowl, as I designed it on route to Whitstable on the way back from France (two Summers ago!). I was visiting my oldest and dearest friend in her new home, a couple of days after they had moved in. Whitstable is a cute place, famous for its Oyster festival and I had been admiring her photos of the seaside town for some time.

After a lovely walk from her house to the seaside, via the Fish & Chip shop of course, we sat at a picnic bench to devour our tea time catch, whilst looking out to sea. I am sure you will agree that there is nothing quite as good as Fish & Chips, alfresco, by the sea. So sat there looking at the North Sea I knew there and then that the Whitstable cowl had to somehow harness the colour of that great expanse of water. Which is why it took me quite sometime to find the right yarn and the right colour!

I started with the obvious blue in a fine cotton, working two strands together.....

...nice, BUT, too obviously 'blue'!

Then I completely digressed from the sea theme to red (!?) in cotton again,

... I love the bold colour and it looks great with a light grey jumper and the cotton is perfect for the Summer but not the effect I wanted for this cowl in the Winter months. It did not seem luxurious enough and I still wanted that sea effect.

A few months passed and then, completely out of the blue, I extended my DROPS Baby Alpaca Silk shade range and there it was, the shade of Baby Alpaca Silk, that was to inspire my range of Whitstable Cowl kits!

......and the shade's name? Light sea green of course!

Perfect!

I blended it with the grey blue shade to finally achieve the look I wanted. It was worth the wait!

I totally love this colour combination and the yarn is amazing too. It has been real hit at the studio (STITCH) and is proving popular in my Etsy store too. Baby Alpaca Silk is extremely soft to the touch and utterly fabulous to crochet with, it just glides off the hook. Once you have tried this yarn, you will fall in love with it...I speak from personal experience and from watching others use it too! Here's a Whitstable Cowl made by one of the ladies at the studio on my Learn to Crochet course, I think this combination was Heather and Blue Purple.

The Whitstable Cowl pattern suggests using using two strands held together, this is far less tricky than you would imagine and you soon get used to this. When you use two colours together you can achieve some really beautiful outcomes.

Here are some of my favourite Baby Alpaca Silk combinations that I have made into Whitstable Cowl Kits:

The Whitstable Cowl Pattern is free to download and kits can be purchased from the Cotton Pod web store or from my Etsy Store. If you make a Whitstable Cowl I would love to see your colour combinations too, so please feel free to share on my Facebook page or on Instagram #cottonpod

The pattern is based on a v stitch made from 2 treble stitches joined together to create clusters. I called this the 'cluster V stitch' for the pattern, not sure if this is a stitch name or not, but the pattern gives clear instructions on how to create this stitch.

 Yarn Notes:

As mentioned earlier, the pattern suggests using two strands of DROPS Baby Alpaca Silk together on a 5mm hook. Baby Alpaca Silk belongs to DROPS Yarn Group A, this is equivalent to a 4ply yarn. The cowl can therefore be made in other Group A yarns for example DROPS Alpaca or DROPS Safran. 

Alternatively you can substitute two strands of a group A yarn with one strand of a Group C yarn (aran weight), e.g., DROPS Big Merino or DROPS Alaska.

Here is an example of the cowl made in DROPS Big Merino. I made this cowl for my friend in Whitstable, for her Birthday, to match her new coat! It uses three balls of DROPS Big Merino colour no 13 olive. Hook Size 5mm.

Happy Hooking!