Available in English (US) and Dutch.

This is a really versatile design. You can make it as a collar or cowl, or decide to give it a bit more length and width to turn it into a capelet. And if you feel really adventurous, adding even more rows to the pattern could turn it into a full blown poncho as well! It is entirely up to you and can be any of the above, the pattern helps you make it to your own liking in terms of neck circumference, width and length. Skill level required is intermediate (the pattern is written in US crochet terms with a link to UK abbreviation translations).

The example used 3ply/light fingering variegated yarn of Made by ME in double strands, a 3.5/E hook for the flowers and a 5.5/I hook for the cowl. My testers used Lion Brand Mandala Baby and Premier Yarns DK. Other suggested yarns are Stylecraft Head Over Heels Boho and Lang Yarns Mille Colori Baby. You will need in total between 800 and 1000 meters / 875 to 1100 yards if you use double strands. Since you need relatively little of every colour this is a great way to use up the scraps you might have laying around.

Because some people find it difficult to choose and line up colours, I spent some time in the pattern explaining how to combine the colours for this design and added a colour wheel. I also wrote a blog post on how to chose your colours. Ideally, you look for several colourways of a self striping/variegated yarns with a little colour overlap. Variegated yarns will give you the blur effect as seen in the example here, while solid coloured yarns will give you a little more pronounced horizontal lines.

Each body is different and standard sizes are sometimes just not fitting as we’d like. I therefore decided to help you figuring out your own size so you can customize it to your own liking (#sizeinclusive). Because you will be starting with the neck, you will discover quickly whether you have put on enough stitches to fit your size. The width and height of the turtle neck is a matter of taste and you can make it fit just the way you prefer. The pattern gives you all possible options. Once you have the neck the way you want, the rest will follow naturally. I also provide explanations for child sizes (but always recommend measuring!) and for women who are wide chested and usually have problems of fit in the bust zone.

The flowers are made separately, you might recognize them from my Ladies Ruffles Necklace design. They are simple to make and I explain you with two photo tutorials how to make the flowers and how to attach them to each other and to the cowl in a way that keeps your last row of stitches visible and the sewing invisible.

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