I couldn’t resist starting a project using the amazing checkerboard stitch that I shared with you recently in a stitch tutorial which you can find here and the pattern details which you can find here.

This vintage stitch pattern is such a joy to work and I thought it would lend itself perfectly to a yarn advent so I dug out last year’s gifted yarn advent from Amy at Noble Character Crafts and together with a skein of Madelinetosh Cosmic Wonder Dust, I set to work on the pattern.

I originally thought two things that did not turn out to be true.

Firstly I thought that I would be quite aggressively blocking this project because the pattern really does come alive when it has been blocked.

Because of this I didn’t start with the longest of foundation chains even though I did envision and want a fairly long, fairly wide scarf, my thinking was that the blocking would give me the width/length I wanted.

I was wrong. I ended up loving how the stitch looks unblocked with this combination of yarn/hook and this was the first inkling that things were not going to turn out how I wanted them too.

Secondly, like I mentioned before, I was looking for a long scarf, a big, smooshy, long scarf and even with two repeats of the yarn advent, it still wasn’t long enough for my liking.

And this is where having a podcast comes in handy, my viewers are experts in all manner of fixing yarn problems and quite a few people suggested turning it into a cowl.

Boom!

What a great idea, I grabbed it, ran with it and now I can share the pattern with you here - although once you’ve watched the video tutorial you should be able to figure your own version out quite easily too. Go for it, go wild, it’s truly a fabulous stitch.

YOU WILL NEED

A fingering weight (4ply) yarn advent with at least 10g of each colour. Alternatively 24 different colours of any yarn with at least 10g of each colour - you won’t need exactly that amount, I have leftovers so don’t worry too much if some of your scraps are smaller (CC).

1 x 100g skein of fingering weight yarn in a main colour such as white or black or any colour you prefer. I used Madelinetosh Merino Light in the Cosmic Wonder Dust colourway (MC).

3mm hook.

ABBREVIATIONS

chain - ch, stitch/stitches - st/sts, single srochet (us only) - sc, double crochet - dc, treble crochet (uk only) - tr

OTHER NOTES

Tension is not critical for this project however the unblocked width of the cowl using fingering weight yarn and a 3mm hook is 27cm. The length is 65cm sewn into a loop and 130cm full length before sewing.

You can use any yarn with this pattern just adjust your hook size accordingly and remember your sizing will be different.

CHECKERBOARD COWL | UK TERMINOLOGY

With MC chain 83.

Row 1. in MC 1tr in 3rd ch from hook, *ch4, miss 4 sts, 1dc in next st, (ch7, 1dc) three times in the same st, ch4, miss 4sts, 1tr in the next st, repeat from * to the end working the last tr in the last st, turn.

Row 2. ch1 (does not count as a st), 1dc in tr, *ch1, 1dc in first petal, ch3, 1dc in second petal, ch3, 1dc in last petal, ch1, 1dc in tr, repeat from * to end working last dc in the final tr (from your foundation row), turn. Break of MC.

Row 3. join in your first CC and (ch7, 1dc in first dc), twice, *ch4, 1tr in middle petal dc, ch4, skip next dc (in the last petal), 1dc in next dc, (ch7, 1dc) three times in the same st, repeat from * to last petal group, ch4, 1tr in middle petal dc, ch1,, skip next dc (in the last petal) 1dc in last dc, ch7, 1dc in the same place, ch3, 1tr in the same place, turn.

Row 4. ch1, 1dc in the ch3 sp, ch3, 1dc in the next petal, ch1, 1dc in tr, *ch1, 1dc in first petal, ch3, 1dc in second petal, ch3, 1dc in last petal, ch1, 1dc in tr, repeat from * to end working last dc in last petal, turn. Break off CC.

Row 5. ch2, 1tr in first dc, *ch4, 1dc in dc above tr, (ch7, 1dc) three times in the same st, ch4, 1tr in dc of second petal, repeat from * ending with last tr in last dc, turn.

Row 6. as row 2. Break off MC.

Rows 3 - 6 form pattern using a different colour for each CC section.

I cycled through my yarn advent twice, I had to miss a couple of colours off at the end because I was very low on my MC, so I have 46 CC stripes in total instead of 48. Do what you need to and don’t worry about it too much because the cowl will be long enough to wrap around anyway if you’ve used your entire 100g MC skein.

Finish after a CC.

Sew your CC end to your foundation chain carefully on the wrong side and then sew in all those ends, yikes!

CHECKERBOARD COWL | US TERMINOLOGY

With MC chain 83.

Row 1. in MC 1dc in 3rd ch from hook, *ch4, miss 4sts, 1sc in next st, (ch7, 1sc) three times in the same st, ch4, miss 4sts, 1dc in the next st, repeat from * to the end working the last dc in the last st, turn.

Row 2. ch1 (does not count as a st), 1sc in dc, *ch1, 1sc in first petal, ch3, 1sc in second petal, ch3, 1sc in last petal, ch1, 1sc in dc, repeat from * to end working last sc in the final dc (from your foundation row), turn. Break off MC.

Row 3. join in your first CC (ch7, 1sc in first sc), twice, *ch4, 1dc in middle petal sc, ch4, skip next sc (in the last petal), 1sc in next sc, (ch7, 1sc) three times in the same st, repeat from * to last petal group, ch4, 1dc in middle petal sc, ch1, skip next sc (in the last petal) 1sc in last sc, ch7, 1sc in the same place, ch3, 1dc in the same place, turn.

Row 4. ch1, 1sc in the ch3 sp, ch3, 1sc in the next petal, ch1, 1sc in dc, *ch1, 1sc in first petal, ch3, 1sc in second petal, ch3, 1sc in last petal, ch1, 1sc in dc, repeat from * to end working last sc in last petal, turn. Break off CC

Row 5. ch2, 1dc in first sc, *ch4, 1sc in sc above dc, (ch7, 1sc) three times in the same st, ch4, 1dc in sc of second petal, repeat from * ending with last dc in last sc, turn.

Row 6. as row 2. Break off MC.

Rows 3 - 6 form pattern using a different colour for each CC section.

I cycled through my yarn advent twice, I had to miss a couple of colours off at the end because I was very low on my MC, so I have 46 CC stripes in total instead of 48. Do what you need to and don’t worry about it too much because the cowl will be long enough to wrap around anyway if you’ve used your entire 100g MC skein.

Finish after a CC.

Sew your CC end to your foundation chain carefully on the wrong side and then sew in all those ends, yikes!

*sorry if there are any errors in this US conversion, it was very tricky with all the dcs, scs etc….

NOTES AND MODIFICATIONS

There are so many ways to modify this pattern. I would like to make another version and block it to see what width I get, I would also like to make a version with a gradient yarn cake.

You can increase or decrease the width by using the multiples given in the original stitch tutorial here.

If the pattern seems a bit confusing you can watch the tutorial here.

That’s it, enjoy crocheting and more importantly enjoy Advent.