Crochet Bella Cowl Free Pattern

Namaste Friends 🙏.

Hope you and your loved ones are healthy and safe.

In this post, I have a free cowl pattern for you.

It is the Bella cowl, named after my BFF from childhood Bela (that's how she spells it).

We have been besties since the fifth grade!! 

The Bella cowl is a wonderful scrap-buster and will put to use all those little balls of your favourite yarn that you have been hoarding. 

You can make it in a single colour or use three colours like I have in this pic.

Here is one more colour combination.

For the pink cowl, I used around 30 gms of White (colour A), 40 gms of watermelon pink (colour B), and 25 gms of variegated Peach (colour C).

And you can also make it in a single colour like so;

The salmon coloured cowl looks slightly different as I had used a different border pattern, but it looked like too much texture going on, so I decided to keep it simple.

This lovely stitch pattern can be used for a scarf/shawl. 

A bag with this stitch pattern would look gorgeous! 😍

* This post contains affiliate links which if you use for any purchase, may yield me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you.

So here goes the Bella Cowl pattern:

Skill Level:  Easy.

Size:      The pink cowl measures 8" wide and 32" around (20 cms by 82 cms) approx. 

Materials:

• DK wt acrylic yarn around 100 gms

• Hook 4mm, US G/6, UK 8

• Scissors

• Yarn needle

Notes:

This pattern uses US terminology.

The cowl is worked in the round without turning.  

Ch 4 at beg of the round counts as 1dc and 1ch.

Ch 5 at beg of the round counts as 1dc and 2ch.       

The pattern needs multiples of 3                 

Abbreviations:

beg – beginning,

ch - chain,

st – stitch,

sp – space,

sl st – slip stitch,

dc – double crochet,

yo – yarn over hook

cl - cluster

beg cl - beginning cluster

3dc cl - 3 double crochet cluster

X - st - Cross stitch or X stitch

Pattern Stitches:

Beg cl:  Ch 2, dc2tog into same st as sl st counts as 1^st cluster or Beg cl. Round 5 starts with a Beg Cl.

3dc cl:  - Into the space indicated, yo, insert hook in sp, yo, pull through st, yo, pull through 2 loops on hook, (yo, insert hook in same sp, yo, pull through, yo, pull through 2 loops on hook) twice, yo, pull through all 4 loops on hook.

X-st: - Dc in st indicated, ch 1, then dc in 2nd stitch to the RIGHT of the 1st dc (the 1st st to the Right is left unworked). One X-st is completed.

You may find THIS tutorial helpful, just remember that my pattern has a chain in between the Dcs.

Instructions:

Round 1: With colour A - Ch 150, join with sl st in 1st ch to form a ring. Ch 1, sc in same st as sl st, sc in each st around, join with sl st in first sc. (150 sc)

Round 2: Ch 1, sc in same st as sl st, sc in each st around, join with sl st in first sc. (150 sc)

Round 3: Repeat Round 2.

Round 4: With colour B - Attach yarn with sl st in any st close to the last st of Round 3. Ch4, dc in 2nd st to the RIGHT of the ch-4, (the first st to the Right is left unworked). One X-st done. * sk 2, dc in next st, ch 1, dc in 2nd st to the right, rep from * around, join with sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch-4.  (50 X-sts).

Round 5: With colour C - Attach yarn with sl st in a ch-1 sp, work (ch2, dc2tog) in same sp, ch 3, * sk 2, cl in next ch-1 sp, ch 3, rep from * around, join with sl st in 1st cl.  (50 cl).

Round 6: With colour B - Attach yarn with sl st in a ch-3 sp, ch 4, dc in previous ch-3 sp to the RIGHT - X-st completed, * sk cl, dc in next ch-3 sp, ch 1, dc in prev ch-3 sp, rep from * around, join with sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch-4.  (50 X-sts). 

Round 7: With colour A - Attach yarn with sl st in a ch-1 sp of an X-st, ch 5, sk 2, * dc in next ch-1 sp, ch 2, sk 2, rep from * around, join with sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch-5.  (50 dc).

Round 8: With colour B - Attach yarn with sl st in a ch-2 sp, ch 4, dc in previous ch-2 sp to the RIGHT - Beg X-st completed, * sk next dc, dc in next ch-1 sp, ch 1, dc in previous ch-1 sp to the RIGHT - X_st done, rep from * around, join with sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch-4.  (50 X-sts).

Round 9: With colour C - Rep Round 5.

Round 10: With colour B - Rep Round 6.

Round 11: With colour A - Rep Round 7.

Round 12: With colour B - Rep Round 8.

Round 13: With colour C - Rep Round 5.

Round 14: With colour B - Rep Round 6.

Rounds 15 to 18: Rep Rounds 11 to 14.

Round 19: With colour A - Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in each st around, join with sl st in 1st sc. (150 sc).

Rounds 20 and 21: Rep Round 2.

To make the cowl wider repeat Rounds 15 to 18 as many times as you desire. And to make it longer just add chains in multiples of 3 in Round 1.

For the blue cowl, I started the pattern with a Dc round and not an X-st round, so as you can see it looks slightly different.

My crochet classes kept me really busy as it is vacation time here in Mumbai.

Also, I have signed up for Sanskrit classes which leaves me with little time for blogging. 

If you find a mistake in the pattern above please be a dear and let me know. :)

* This post contains affiliate links which if you use for any purchase, may yield me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you. 

Hope you enjoy making the Bella Cowl. 

Thank you for your time.

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How to crochet Post Stitches

Namaste friends 🙏

Calendar pages are turning but not much is being achieved. We are already in the second half of 2021!

When the lockdown was announced I thought with so much time on hand and nowhere to go, I will crochet heaps of items and write a ton of patterns.

Only ended up adding more stuff to my WIPs basket...Lol.

Designed a lot of patterns but I’m yet to write them down in proper format.

Blamed it squarely on the Fam and protested that having them around All the time was disrupting my creative flow. Not that it affected them one bit.

The only thing that bothered them was “What’s the menu for the next meal?”. This question would usually pop up even before we were done with the current meal!!

I hope you had a look at my latest free crochet cowl pattern in my last post. If you did, do let me have your comments/ suggestions.

In THIS post we saw 4 different ways to work into a crochet stitch. 

In today’s post let’s see how to work around the posts of the stitches. These stitches are called Post Stitches (obviously).

* This post contains affiliate links which if you use for any purchase, may yield me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you.

Post stitches can be made with any stitch and can be worked around any stitch. For this tutorial we will work with double crochet stitches.

I am using cotton yarn and a 4mm crochet hook for this tutorial.

Front Post Double Crochet aka Fpdc.

To start I have crocheted 3 rows of Dcs. Post stitches need at least one row of regular stitches around which they are worked.

On our post stitch row (in yellow) I have begun with the usual 3ch.

For a Fpdc – yarn over, insert hook in the space between the first and the second dc below going from the front to the back,

and then from back to front between the second and third dc below, while lifting the post of the second dc and bringing it forward

Now yo and pull through so that there are three loops on the hook.

We will complete the rest of the stitch just like a regular dc.

As this stitch brings the stitch below to the front it is called a Front Post Double Crochet. It gives a raised effect and is great for adding texture to your project.

Now onto the second Fpdc…

Here is a row of seven Fpdcs

and on the backside, we can see the loops formed by the Fpdcs around the posts below, we can also see a ridge of the unworked tops of the stitches forming a ridge, which also adds a 3D effect in your design.

Just for comparison here is a row with 5 Fpdcs and 4 regular Dcs.

The procedure for making Front Post single crochet, Front Post Half Double Crochet or even Front Post Treble crochet is basically the same as far as insertion of the hook is concerned, after that they have to be completed just like their regular versions. (I hope that sentence made sense.)

Back Post Double Crochet aka Bpdc

The difference between a front post and a back post stitch is just the direction in which the hook is inserted.

So let’s start, we have our usual 3 ch to begin the row, then yarn over,

now we insert the hook between stitches from the back to the front and then we go to the back again pushing the post below to the back, hence the name Back Post Double crochet. 

The stitch is completed just like a regular dc.

Here we see the raised ridge of unworked tops of the stitches below is on the front while the post is pushed to the back. We can also see the loops in yellow formed by the Bpdcs.

For comparison we have a row with 5 Bpdcs and 4 regular dcs.

And here is a look at the wrong side of the row.

As I mentioned earlier post stitches are great for adding texture to your projects and are used to form various stitches like Waffle stitch, Alpine stitch, Basketweave stitch, crochet cables and even ribbing.

So, you absolutely must have Post Stitches in your repertoire.

We will cover some of these stitches later. The very first pic of this post 👆 shows an example of crochet ribbing using alternate front post and back post stitches.

I have used this post stitch ribbing technique in the free Flora beanie crochet pattern, so do check that out.

I hope you found this tutorial useful. Please let me know in the comments.

Crochet Classes

You can now join me for private online crochet coaching classes from the comfort of your home. Contact me by clicking HERE, and also on Instagram.

While scouring Youtube for crochet videos I developed an interest in Tarot card reading and enjoyed watching them. And then a few days ago I came across these Yarn Tarot cards, so if you are a yarn lover and a Tarot card reader (which I am not), you might enjoy them! 😀    

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Stay home, stay safe, stay healthy.

* This post contains affiliate links which if you use for any purchase, may yield me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you.