Left Hand Everfrost Cowl Crochet Tutorial | Easy Super Bulky Moss Stitch Cowl for Beginners

Hey everyone, it's Deja Yetner from crocheteverafter.com and today what we're going to be making is this moss stitch beginner's cowl. I had a couple requests, one for a beginner type cowl or scarf, which this can be made either or, and I also had another request on how to make a project that begins with a foundation single crochet. So I combined those two requests into this pattern, you can find the link below. Also, if you have any requests, be sure to leave them in the comments and I'll try to accommodate you as best I can. So let's grab our yarn and our hook and you'll see everything that I'm using in just a second, but let's get started. Alright, I am going to begin our moss stitch scarf or cowl, depending on what you want to make. I'm going to make a cowl because I just have one skein of this yarn. This is a Lion Brand Woolies Thick and Quick in Cranberry. I really like this brand of yarn. It's nice and easy to work with and it's really soft. So, I'm going to first put a slip knot on my hook, but I want you to make a really long tail. because we're going to use this tail to actually sew up our cowl. If you're making a scarf, you don't have to make it as long, but make it maybe like 24 inches, just so you have definitely enough tail to be able to sew it up at the very end. So I'm just going to create my slip knot by doubling over. I'm pulling my working yarn through, and I have a nice movable slip knot. As I said in my tutorial, this is a combination of two viewer requests, one for a beginner type scarf and the other to integrate foundation stitches into our work. So we're going to do 44 foundation single crochets. So I'm going to show you how to work through those again. If you haven't seen my tutorial and you don't know how to do them, if you do, just start doing them and you'll be done hopefully by the time I am through a few of them and you can just keep on going with me. If you really don't like the foundation single crochet, go ahead and just This is chain 45. Then turn your work and single crochet back across so you'll have 44 stitches at the end. But for those of you that want to learn a new trick, let's begin. So we're just going to chain 2, and that's all the chaining that we will have to do for this entire project, so that's another great thing about foundation single crochets. And then what you're going to do is insert your hook in that second chain from your hook. So with two chains, just insert your hook into that second chain. And then you're going to yarn over and pull up a loop. Now, usually you would do a yarn over and pull through both to do a single crochet, but because we're creating a foundation chain and a single crochet as one, what we need to do first is yarn over and pull through just that first loop. And what that just did was create our very first foundation chain. It doesn't look like much right now, but once, as we keep going, you're going to see that these will start to look more like V's of an actual foundation chain. So now that I did my foundation chain, now I need to do my very first single crochet. So I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to pull through both of those loops. So I've created one foundation chain and one single crochet. It's important to remember where that foundation chain is because that's what you're going to work into next. So what you need to do is put your hook through that foundation chain you made, both loops. So you have both loops caught, you're going to yarn over and pull up the loop through there. Now we need to make another foundation chain. It always goes in the same steps. First pull through just that first loop, now you've created two foundation chains, yarn over, pull through both loops, now you have two single crochets. Again go back through that foundation chain and yarn over and pull up that loop, yarn over, pull through the first loop, another foundation chain made, yarn over, pull through Go through both loops. Another single crochet made. If I turn my work, you can see that I'm starting to get some V's, so it's starting to look like a real foundation chain. These are a little bit more difficult to see because this yarn is so thick and it's twisted that it's a little bit more difficult to see those V's because you see all these extra twists, but here's one V right here, here is my second V kind of hidden, and there's And there's my third V. So I'm going to keep on working into my foundation chain, catching both loops, yarning over, pulling up, yarning over, pull through that first loop, yarn over and pull through the next. Notice, if you're a beginner, that every time I insert my hook, I push my hook so that all of my yarn, all of my loops, rest on the shaft of my hook. That's the portion that's all the same size. This is the throat, this is the smaller portion. You do not want your loops to rest here because you're going to have a smaller gauge and it may give you really tight stitches. So you'll see I pull through and I push that loop to my shaft. Then I yarn over and I pull through and then I push my loops to my shaft. Yarn over, pull through, push that loop to my shaft. By doing that, I get even stitches. You can see that all of my stitches are the same height and same thickness, and I don't have a ton of different sizes. If I was to just work on the throat, or if I pulled my loops out as I worked, I would have very high stitches. So if you're working really fast, and you're pulling your loops really big like this... You can see that stitch is way off from the rest of my other stitches. By keeping your loops on your shaft you're going to have more consistent stitches and usually your gauge will be pretty correct for most patterns that you read. So I'm going to keep on working these foundation single crochets. If you need more help on these and you want to take a little break to go check out my tutorial on foundation single crochets, it'll give you a little bit more stitches that you can work on with me. You can check that out and come back over, but just keep on going until you get up to 44. And then meet me back here and we're going to start the first row of our moss stitch. So I will see you in just a minute. Alright, I have finished my 44 foundation single crochets and I'm ready to actually begin my stitch pattern now. So, what I did with this first row was just create a border for my project so it gives it a nice edge and I'm not starting my stitch pattern on my foundation chain. Now for the stitch pattern, it's a pretty easy stitch pattern once you get going. All you're simply going to do is chain one, you always do that at the beginning of every I'm going to go in every row to get the proper height. And then, I'm going to single crochet into that very first stitch. So if you are new, what I like to say is turn your work sideways and look for that very first V. So here's our very first V. This is our chain one, so we don't count that. We look just for the first V and we put our hook under those first two loops only. So we want to put our hook under that V. Only catch those two loops. It's pretty easy to do with the foundation single crochet because the holes, if you can see, are quite large, so you can also just pull it apart and look for that big hole. That's why I like using chunky yarn for beginners because everything is exaggerated. It's very easy to see where you need to put your hook. So I put my hook in and then I yarn over, or I like to say lay over because I'm just Laying it over the top and catching it with my hook by turning it down. And then I'm going to pull up that loop and do my single crochet. Now, the next part of my stitch pattern is I'm just going to chain one. So I want a nice chain one so I keep the loop the same size as my shaft. And then I'm going to skip my next stitch. So what you can do, you can either pull your stitches apart to look for your next stitch, so you can see that hole right there, or you can turn your work sideways and look for your V. This V we want to skip, we want to now do a single crochet in the next V, or the next hole. So skip that first hole, stick your hook into the next hole. Just under those top two loops, yarn over and pull up again, and single crochet. So this stitch pattern, very simple, you're going to chain one, skip a stitch, and then single crochet into the next stitch, all the way across. So again, I'm going to chain one. Notice I push my loop back to my shaft, so I get nice even stitches, skip the next hole, and put my hook into the one after. yarn over and do a single crochet. And when you get to the end, you're going to see that you have kind of these extra big holes where your chains are going. And that's going to be important for our next row. So all you're simply doing is chaining one, skipping the next stitch, And single crocheting into the one after. Notice I keep pushing all of my loops to my shaft. Chain one, skip the next stitch, work into the one after. So when you see your pattern and it has those stars, that is telling you that you're going to repeat what's in those stars over and over again. You do the chain one, first you single crochet, chain one, Skip your next stitch, and then you start it over. You single crochet, chain one, skip your next stitch, start the stars over. So when you're reading a pattern, if you're not used to reading patterns, you just simply follow the instructions in the stars until it tells you to stop. So I'm gonna keep working across this row until we get right to the end, so I can show you what to do next. Alright, so I have worked across my row, and I'm at the end of my very last star repeat, where it's telling me to single crochet and then chain one and skip my next stitch, and the repeat tells me all the way to my last stitch. I'm repeating all the way to my very last stitch. So that means I'm not doing the repeat in the last stitch. I can't single crochet, chain one, and skip a stitch because there's no other stitch to skip. So when you're reading those repeats, see where it tells you to stop. So it says stop in that last stitch, and then it tells me to single crochet. So all I'm doing is just a single crochet in that very last stitch, and that will finish off this row. Now I'm going to turn my work, and I'm going to go on to my next row instructions. Now what I need to do to get the proper placement for everything is I'm going to chain one to get that height for my row, Then, I'm going to show you how this pattern works. So first I'm going to single crochet into this very first stitch, so that I get a nice edge that will be easy to sew together, and then, this pattern repeat, all I'm simply doing is single crocheting around my chain 1 space. So I'm going to single crochet, and this is where the repeat starts, I single crochet all the way around. I don't have to look. For a back loop in my chain one, I don't have to work under two loops. I'm working around the entire thing. So that big hole that's right there, I'm just sticking my hook through it, yarning over and pulling up. And you'll see I create a nice big space, and that's what I want. So I'm going to finish that single crochet. Then my repeat says to chain one, and again I'm skipping my next stitch, which was a single crochet in the row below. Now I'm going to single crochet around my next chain one space. And again, chain one and skip my next stitch. So every single row from now on, all I'm doing is chaining one and skipping the single crochet that I made of the row below and then single crocheting around the chain one space I made. And that's all that there is to this pattern repeat. The important part are your ends because that's what can throw you off knowing what to do with those. So that's where you need to pay attention with what your pattern says or until you have that memorized. But the middle part all you're doing chaining one and single crocheting around that chain one space. So after you get that down you can do anything while making this project. But I'm going to go across the row so you can see how to end the edging of this row and how to start the next row so that it becomes very clear how the pattern works. And then you can go to town and make this as tall as you want or as short as you want or you can turn it into a scarf. It's a very easy stitch pattern. And it's very versatile, but it gives you a really neat finished product. So you can see, already, where I've worked around those chain 1 spaces, I have this little visual interest of these holes. And then my next row, when you see it, because I'm working around The chain one spaces, which are now in the middle of these two holes, I'll start creating holes there. So I'm going to have a stagger of these holes throughout my whole project, which is a lot more interesting looking than just, you know, plain single crochet. So this is a great beginner project because it's very easy to do while you're doing a single crocheting and chaining one, but it gives you a really neat finished product. So, let me finish off this row, and then I'll show you what to do next at the end. Okay, so, now my pattern told me to work across, single crochet, chain one, skip my next stitch, to my two last stitches. So, I have three here that are unworked, but this one I'm supposed to be skipping. from my chain one. So here is where my star repeat ends and now I have my two last stitches and it tells me to single crochet in those two last stitches. So I single crochet around that chain one space and then I single crochet into that last stitch of the row. So it's pretty much a mirror of the beginning of the row. I single crocheted into the first stitch and then into the chain one space. So I'm doing the same thing here. Now I'm going to turn my work and this is the second part of the two row stitch repeat. So this pattern has a two row stitch repeat which means after you learn this row all you're going to do is simply alternate the row you just did And this row, over and over again, until you have your cowl or scarf as wide or as tall as you want it. So, I'm going to chain one, just like before, and I'm going to single crochet right into there. And it's pretty much, I am just repeating what I did down here, right after that very first row of single crochets. I'm chaining one, I'm skipping my next stitch, which was the single crochet, And then I'm working into that chain one space. So the only difference between this row that I'm doing now and that very first row of my stitch pattern is now I'm working into these chain one spaces instead of the single crochets. So that's why I say that we're starting the stitch repeat on this row. These two rows are repeating because I don't want to confuse you by saying Follow this first row because it's telling you to go into the single crochets instead of the chain one spaces. So anyways, if that made sense, hopefully, you're basically going to just repeat this row that you're doing now and the one below. So my next row is going to be this previous row and then the row after will be this row. So you'll see the pattern tells you to repeat rows, the two rows over and over again. So once you get those memorized, you don't have to look at the pattern any longer, you can just keep going till either you run out of yarn or you like how tall it is, whatever your choice is, just keep continuing to chain one, skip your single crochet, and work into your chain one space, all the way across every single row. So I'm going to do a few more rows. Well, actually, I'll stop at the end of this row so you can see the ending of this row also. So let me work across, and then I'll come back at the end of the row. Okay, I'm at the end of the repeat of my stars. I have chained one, and I have skipped my last stitch. And now I'm at the very last stitch of the row. And just as that very first row, I'm just going to single crochet into it. So let's take a look at how our pattern is starting to come about. So you can see that we have those little holes between each one, and as we work, you're going to see that the pattern is a really neat looking pattern. And what we're going to do is continue with those two rows, so I turn my work, and all I'm going to do to begin is single crochet in that first stitch, and then single crochet into that next chain one space. Then I start my whole repeat again, you know, chain one, skip a stitch, single crochet in the chain one, all the way across. I'm going to do a couple more rows, and then I'm going to come back and show you how to measure the gauge. I like to do that in all the projects, just so you learn how to do it, even when it's not that important. This one's not that important because it's not something that has to fit exact. But it's a good thing to learn how to do, and especially when you're working with different kinds of stitch patterns that aren't so easy to see where exactly you're supposed to measure. So let's go to maybe, I don't know, we'll do like another four rows, and then I'll come back and show you how to measure gauge. So just continue working on, and I will see you in a little bit. I have finished some more rows of the project and I'm ready to show you how to check gauge. The vertical gauge on this is not too important because you can make it as tall as you want. This isn't for a garment that has to be a certain size. You do want to match up the horizontal gauge though, how many stitches across you have, So that is big enough to fit over your head. If you make it too small, you're not going to be able to fit it over your head once you have it sewn up. So, I want to also show you how to easily count these rows because they can look quite jumbled up once you get going. You can see my foundation single crochet down here. The holes between the foundation single crochet and the beginning of the stitch pattern are a little bit bigger than the holes between your actual project. I kind of like that because it gives it a nice little border. But it also makes it a little easier to count how many stitches we have. So what you can do, if you're going to count the foundation single crochet as your first row, look for those single crochets that you did in the chain one spaces. You can see that... Down here, you see the little V that comes from each single crochet, and they're on a diagonal, so you can count either this way or this way. I find that easier to count than trying to count the rows going straight up, because the chain ones can get a little difficult to see. So I'm going to count these Vs going diagonally. So I see 1, 2, 3, 4. So I've done nine rows of the stitch pattern, and now I'm ready to check gauge. So if you've seen my tutorials, you know that I love my Susan Bates Knit Check, and why I always write my patterns with two-inch gauges, because this lovely little cutout really helps you to see what your gauge should be. An easy way to measure gauge when you have a difficult stitch pattern and you're trying to see how many stitches are across is to measure the ends. Take either end that has your V's that you can see the stitches clearly and measure them. So put the knit check right over the top of it. I'm going to try to get it so you can see well, there we go. So start right where... One stitch meets the next stitch. So I lay it over and then you can see that I have one, two, three, and four. Sorry, let me get that a little bit better. One, two, three, four stitches across. So I really have about two stitches per inch. That's why I had you do 44 foundation single crochets because if you divide that by two that makes 22 inches so that should be plenty big to fit over your head plus you get a lot of stretch so you still have a few more inches of stretch to fit over your head. Because the height isn't too important on this I still want to show you how to measure it Or how to find it on here because this stitch pattern is kind of difficult to see So what you want to do is find the bottom of one of your rows So use those V's to find the bottom of the row These dip into the row below because of this stitch pattern, the single crochet goes around that chain one. So I'm going to start at the bottom of one of my single crochets to start counting my rows. And then you can see it's quite difficult to see my rows. They're kind of all a muddled mess when you're just seeing this little sliver. So use... The actual garment to the left to be able to figure out those rows. So I'll just count those single crochets going diagonal again. So here's one that matches this one, so I'm going to go one, two, three, four. And I got about four and three quarters, almost five rows to two inches. And that's because these are dipping in so it makes the rows a lot shorter. Again, the height is not that important. You can keep single crochet or keep doing the stitch pattern until you run out of yarn or until you reach the height you like or you can follow the pattern that I wrote and do the same amount of rows. It's totally up to you. I'm going to continue on until I get to the end of my rows and then I'm going to show you how to join this all together. So I'll meet you back here in just a minute when we go over that. Alright I have gone ahead and done all of the rows that I want to do in my stitch pattern. I have 23 rows total including my foundation single crochet so technically I have 22 of my stitch pattern and then one row of single crochet at the bottom. Now what I want to do is finish off my border by doing just a row of single crochet to finish Let me finish off my cowl. Now, if you're using yarn and you want to keep crocheting until you come to the end of your yarn instead of following the rows and you want to get rid of the whole ball of yarn, what you can do is just make sure that you have enough yarn that if you lay it flat against your project, you can run it back and forth along your project about three times. So you should be able to run your whatever leftover yarn you have over over your project about three times and that's going to give you enough length To single crochet all the way across one more time. You don't have to worry because remember we made a long tail at the very beginning and that's what we're using to sew our cowl up with and that's why I had to do it at the beginning instead of the end. That way if you wanted to keep working until all your yarn's gone you still have that length to be able to join it at the end. So all we're going to do now is just a basic single crochet All the way across in every stitch. So of course we chain one and you're going to still work on because you're gonna still have those chain one spaces you're just gonna single crochet in every stitch. So you're gonna single crochet around the chain one just like you were for your stitch pattern except instead of chaining one between each of those chains you're now going to single crochet into your single crochets from the row below. So I'm just going to work all the way across and then we'll fasten off and we will sew up this cowl so we can start wearing it. So I will meet you right at the end of this row. So I have just finished single crocheting into the last stitch of my last row and I'm ready to fasten off and begin sewing my cowl together. So when I fasten off what I do is I just yarn over and I make a chain and I pull The length of tail that I want out, so I just pull a big old length, and I get my scissors and I cut the tail. Then what I do is I just pull on the working yarn to pull that extra tail out, and now I have my fastened off end. I just pull that tight, and that closes it off and secures it so that it's not going to come undone. Now, what we're going to do... And you notice that I cut kind of a short end. This end I'm not going to be using to join. Remember we did a long beginning tail that we're going to use for our joining. And that way, if you are making a cowl and you just keep working until you run out of yarn, you're still always going to have some yarn left over to sew up your project. So I'll wait till the end to weave this in because I can also use it as a securing point for my join, which I'll show you when we get there what I mean. So to join my cowl, I simply fold it in half and what we're going to do is called the mattress stitch. And the mattress stitch is going to give us an almost invisible join for our cowl. So I have my yarn needle. I'm just going to thread my yarn, and this is very chunky yarn, so you need a good yarn needle with a nice big hole to be able to thread it. If not, you could always use a crochet hook and put it through where you need to join and grab your yarn and pull it through. It takes a lot of extra time, so I would invest in a good yarn needle if you don't want to have to do those extra steps. So I have folded my cowl, I've just folded it in half and kind of met in the middle so that you can see easier how this mattress stitch is going to go. Because what we're going to do is we're going to run our stitches inside our seams, or our edges. So what I do is I find my corner, and it's got the chain so I can just find where my corner is, and I'm going to stick my needle through it. Just pull tight, because remember, this is already in the corner on this side, so I don't need to start on that end. Now, because this is the same colored yarn, this isn't a multicolored project, our mattress stitch is pretty easy and pretty fast going. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to move it up a little bit, and then come over through the other side. So as you can see, I came out here. I'm just going to move up a little bit, and then come out the other side to join the ends. And pull it tight. And you see this nice long length will give me plenty of room to do my entire cowl. Again, I'll go up a little bit and come out the other side. And this is going to create a nice flat join because the ends are butting up against each other. Because these are... Row ends, there's no specific stitches to actually join your yarn through. If I was, say, sewing up this end, I could go through both tops of my yarn or just one loop each on each side and it would be a lot easier to see. With this end, it's just all end stitches, so it's kind of jumbled. So it's up to you on where you want to place your hook or I'm sorry your needle So I'm going to keep on Mattress stitching all the way up my project. So I just lift it a little. I find a nice loop that I want to go through. Nice loop on the other side. And I just move up like one loop each row. I join about one row with each sewing pass that I do. And I try to catch one loop, two if I really want to, but I want this to butt up against each other. I don't want it to be, you know... I've folded together and sewn that way. I would have just done a slip stitch seam if I wanted to do that or a single crochet seam. I want this to butt up against each other and look almost like it's all one piece so that I don't have any unsightly seams. So when I put this on I don't have to worry about what's facing forward and what's not. So I continue doing this mattress seam all the way up. And I'll stop for a second while I work on this. So all you're doing is just going back and forth and back and forth. If this was in a separate color, if this was a multicolored project and I had a few different colors, the mattress seam is also pretty good at keeping the insides or keeping this yarn that you're sewing kind of invisible. There's a... I'm not too concerned with it being invisible right now, so I'm not going at it in that fashion. But once you pull it, you want to pull it nice and tight so you can just start going and then you can pull it tight as you go, it's going to almost disappear inside of your work. So if you are using a different colored yarn, you shouldn't be able to see it once you're complete because it's going to be hidden within all of those folds. So I'm going to pause and get to the top and show you what I mean by using this extra tail as a joining method. Okay, I've finished sewing my seam. It's right here in the center of the picture. It's almost invisible, so when I hold it up you can't totally see where it's at, which is what I wanted with that mattress stitch. And now I have the two ends up at the top. So how I said you could use this before you weave it in is to secure it is just do a little Just a little double knot. Pull it nice and tight. And then go ahead and weave in your ends. So I'll weave in one of the ends so you can see how I do it. So again, I put the yarn on my needle. To get it to go in easier, I lay it over the top of my needle and pinch it really tight, and then slide the needle off, and then I can kind of push that pinched end through the eye of the needle. So instead of having to try to put this very frayed end through my needle, it's a lot simpler to just fold it over. So when I go to weave in, what I want to do is keep this end from ever coming out. So my goal is not to do it as quickly as possible, but as secure as possible. So if I want to do it fast, I could just do a straight line straight across up here. This is all the same color, so it's going to blend very well. But, I don't want to do it fast. I want this to last, and if I wash it, I don't want it to come out. So what I'm going to do is take the time, and I'm going to zig-zag along my stitches. I don't have to be too careful about where I'm putting it, because it is the same color. I just don't want to go across my holes. So I have a hole right here, so I try to keep it where my thick stitches are. I don't want to just go straight across this hole and close this hole off. So, zigzag back and forth through your thick stitches, and the zigzagging secures it even more. And pull on it as you sew, so you can make it slack so that it's not very tensed up, so when you cut it doesn't kind of ricochet back and stick out somewhere. But do a good six inches of sewing in. This one's really easy to sew in because it's nice and thick and my stitches are thick, so it hides it very well. So once you get it weaved in to where you're happy, just take your scissors and cut that end off. Then you'll just have one more end to weave in and your cowl is done. And I love these tall cowls because they really, when they're nice and tall and thick, they They stand up and they cover your face really well. And I know that because I use them when I go to the snow, and it keeps my nose nice and warm. So, if you have any questions about any of the techniques or any of the project, just leave them below, and I will answer them as quickly as I can. And thank you for watching!