When the samples of Diadem first arrived in our office, the thing I remember most was the feeling of being completely in awe of the colors! Immediately, I went into project brainstorming mode: grabbing colors, making notes of pattern possibilities, rearranging color palettes, piling up stitch dictionaries.

Diadem in Tourmaline

There were just so many good possibilities! And finally, after many piles of mini swatches  (both knit and crochet), I settled on making a cowl with a simple stitch pattern to really show off the ever-so-subtle shade shifts.

Initially, I wanted to experiment with working a few colors together – either with stripes or some sort of simple motif. And yet, no matter how many color palettes I came up with, I kept coming back to the color Tourmaline (also known as the best, most hot pink color ever)! I just love how saturated and vivid this color is on its own, so I decided against my original plan and went with a single color project.

I ended up doing a fairly modified version of the Calm Cowl by Suzana Davidovic. The original pattern calls for sport weight yarn and Diadem is a fingering weight yarn. I adjusted for this by working an even number of stitches until the foundation chain was roughly the length I wanted my cowl to be. For me, this worked out to be a 48” circumference.

I love how much fun this simple stitch pattern was to work on. It is super easy and very repetitive, which means I can binge-watch Friday Night Lights AND still feel like I’m being productive! The main body stitch is just a single crochet followed by a chain 1 where each single crochet is worked into the previous rounds chain 1 space. Additionally, I am working a round of double crochet, chain 1 after every 2.5” of the main stitch.

a close-up of the stitch pattern

Originally, I wasn’t exactly sure of how tall I wanted my cowl but I knew I wanted it on the bigger side. I ended up setting three skeins aside. After two full skeins, my cowl measured 9” tall and I ended up breaking out the third skein to make it taller. If you are looking to make a larger infinity cowl, I’d suggest three skeins but if you’re looking for something slightly smaller, two skeins would be plenty.

One thing to note, the pattern is worked in joined rounds. However, I decided to work mine in continuous rounds since it looked a bit neater to me. I’d suggest working a small circular swatch to see which method works best for you. I also worked my first round of double crochet, chain 1 flat and then joined the round with the start of the next round. I ended up having a twist in mine on the first two attempts at joining my foundation chain right away.

Being mostly a one-project-at-a-time kinda gal, I’m already dreaming up my next Diadem project as I work through the final part of my cowl.

So in summary, here are the details on my Diadem WIP:

48″ circumference, 11.5″ tall and growing
D/3.25mm crochet hook
3 hanks – Diadem in Tourmaline (though 2 hanks did get me to about 9″ tall if you’d prefer a slightly smaller cowl)
Pattern (slightly modified) – Calm Cowl by Suzana Davidovic

Have you tried Diadem yet? What are your plans for this very-tempting yarn?