crochet cowl | The Little Room of Rachell

MAKING great fires in the log burner! Does that count?

COOKING warming veggie curries; pumpkin & chickpea and a peanutty aubergine recipe

BAKING Scottish Shortbread. Delicious!

SIPPING a few hot chocolates lately. Well, it’s cold. 3° yesterday, 2° today. Brrr!

READING Mad Blood Stirring by Simon Mayo (and listening to it on Spotify)

WAITING for snow. First snowfall nearby last night

LOOKING very wrapped up when out. All the woollies. Wearing my rainbow bobble cowl at the mo and wrapping my purple Hitchhiker scarf on top when I go back to the car

LISTENING to The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcasts by Danny Robins

WISHING Christmas presents magically bought and wrapped themselves

ENJOYING lights and sparkle when out and about

DISLIKING Christmas trees and decs up in early November. Soon it’s going to be Christmas from the day after Halloween…

APPRECIATING any sunny blue days

EATING toasted goats cheese, rocket & red onion chutney toastie in a favourite cafe today

LIKING the mocha that always accompanies it. Strange combo maybe…

LOVING heated car seat and stirring wheel. A car with gizmos

BUYING a Star Bar recently, then dropping the last bit in the gutter

MANAGING to forget about a third of all I need to remember

WATCHING Ant & Dec in Australia. They make me laugh

HOPING for a good December

LISTENING to be audiobook of Mad Blood Stirring by Simon Mayo (on Spotify)

WEARING black jeans, green top

VISITING The V&A: Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto

NOTICING how one person with a (very) loud voice can dominate a space. Shoulders went down in the cafe when they left

FOLLOWING …it’s macabre, but so many death announcements today …Shane MacGowan, Alistair Darling, Henry Kissinger and Dean Sullivan (Jimmy Corkhill in Brookside, a particularly English soap opera)

SORTING photos. Where do you store your digital photos? Cloud? Lap top? External hard drive?

GETTING organised with lists, but not much action

COVETING I can’t think of anything. A chateau maybe? A castle?

FEELING relaxed

HEARING a buzz of conversation, South Oxfordshire accents

How are you? What are you up to at the moment? Tell me three things?

I’ve enjoyed crocheting this bobbly cowl. It’s definitely been a slow project as rows of mostly double crochet do not grow at all fast, but there was absolutely no rush to complete it. I took my time, I have to do that these days anyway.

I saw this pattern in Simply Crochet magazine issue 128, it was one of those challenges where they give two designers the same yarn and set them to make a blanket, an accessory, or a toy. And Sue Pearson’s bobble cowl jumped out at me. I’ve long enjoyed making bobbles, as I love the texture that they give to accessories in particular. Long-term readers might remember the bobble mitts (see here) which I made years ago. Cor, they were featured in Simply Crochet issue 10. I’ve read the mag since the beginning. (Nowadays through Press Reader or Libby library apps for FREE.) It made my day that those mitts later sold in a Cats Protection charity craft sale.

I’ve never done reverse double crochet before, also known as crab stitch. Have you? It’s perfect for a firm, attractive edging. That’s definitely going on my do-again list. If you wanted a simple edging for a blanket, it would work well.

For some reason it was taking me far too long to translate the instructions into leftie crochet terms. I realised part of the problem was I couldn’t think through how I do double crochet, going in the usual direction, let alone in reverse. Without actually doing some double crochet my brain couldn’t grasp it. If you get what I mean? So, I undid a few switches of the previous row, double crocheted them again and straight away it clicked. I realised what I had to do, only of course going backwards, from right to left as a left hander.

Happily I have quite a bit of Hayfield Spirit, autumn, leftover, so I can make some more granny circles (see my last post, here.) First I need to carry on crocheting my little flowery contribution to a spring yarn bomb. I’ll show you those very soon, as they need to be with the organiser by Wednesday the first. Next I’m off to make some stamens. (It’s not everyday I find myself typing that!)

Have you just, or nearly, finished making something? Or are you surrounded by too many half started projects?

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Post could also be titled ‘Reverse double crochet for a left handed custard brain’