During the height of summer, I was perusing one of my all-time favorite crochet books, Simple Crocheting by Erika Knight, when I was struck with the need to make the Classic Snood. The image of a large tweedy wool cowl paired with my favorite fall coat would not escape me, so I naturally spent an afternoon searching through my stash to find just the right yarn.
Looking back, it’s easy to see how the pages of cozy knits and oh-so-lovely photography transported me out of the sweltering summer heat and into the world of comforting winter accessories. Plus, who doesn’t love having a few freshly finished accessories ready for the first day of cool autumn weather?
The Classic Snood pattern in the book calls for an Aran weight yarn and a 5mm crochet hook. And since I had decided on a tweedy yarn, I opted for City Tweed DK in Orca. Although that meant I had to be a bit adventurous in my crocheting skills since I was using a lighter weight yarn, I was up for the challenge. After a bit of swatching, I decide on a 3.75mm Harmony Hook (I find I tend to crochet a bit on the looser side).
Then, I used my swatch as a guide to figure out how many stitches I needed in my foundation chain. The stitch pattern called for a multiple of 6 plus 5 extra for the foundation chain and I was aiming to get my cowl 10″ wide, as the pattern suggested. After a bit of math, I was ready to start my cowl!
I found that this was the perfect project for me to expand my crochet skills. I’ve been doing endless amounts of granny squares and double crochets. This pattern uses the versatile double crochet stitch and pairs it with the puff stitch to create an open, yet wonderfully textured stitch. And conveniently, for those of you who are visual learners like myself – we even have a crochet tutorial that walks you through all of the steps in order to make that cute lil’ puff stitch!
I ended up using 5 balls of City Tweed DK, and I kept crocheting until I ran out of yarn. This left me with a slightly longer version of the cowl that is in the book and all together, I am really loving how this project turned out.
Although we’ve had a few rainy days here in the Pacific NW and this week boasts a high of 97 degrees, I can wholly say that I am prepared for the first days of fall!
You can find the book and the puff stitch tutorial here:
Simple Crocheting by Erika Knight
Learn to Crochet: the puff stitch
Do you start your cool weather accessories in the summer or do you prefer to knit with the seasons?
