Simple Chain Stitch Infinity Cowl Scarf

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I spent my New Year’s Eve with a great friend of mine and her family. The kids played, the men watched a movie and my friend and I crocheted. I know we are party animals! Hey we did spend the evening in our PJ’s does that make us sound more like party animals or less? (okay probably less)

Anyways it was a knit in, or crochet in? Let’s stick with knit in it has a nicer ring. A few days earlier joyfulsocks on Instagram had shown these amazing pictures of chain stitch infinity scarfs.

I had to try them. I got on Pinterest and found two pins of patterns I thought I might try.

I  went out and got two of the thickest skeins of yarn our  craft store had (hoping when I go out of town next time I can go to a craft store that carries thicker yarn). The red ball of  Wool-Ease Thick and Quick made a better cowl in my opinion.

Much to my surprise I found out that depending on how many loops you want to make (I did 12 loops) you can make 2 chain stitch infinity cowls out of one skein of yarn, making these very inexpensive gifts.

I used the biggest crochet needle I had which is a J .

When I got to my friend’s house, she and I got right down to work. We both decided to toss the tutorials I had pinned and come up with something that suited my likings more. For instance the tutorials made their chain link infinity scarfs to go around their necks twice, I made mine like a cowl preferring just one loop. The tutorials made 8 to 16 separate lengths of chains. I made only one chain and just looped it around and around my head.

If you want to make one and don’t know how to do the crochet chain stitch you can easily learn how from either a friend or a You Tube video.

Here is what I did I started my chain stitch and kept going. Once it got long enough to wrap around my neck loosely I then started chaining it and wrapping it around my neck as I went.

Here is what I mean. I am about half way done my first chain stitch infinity cowl scarf in this photo. And yes those are pajama pants I have on, remember I told you, my friend and I rocked in the New Year.

Once you have the desired amount of loops you want join the two ends together by looping your crochet hook into the end you started with and then pull the yarn through both ends and cut and tie a knot (sorry no picture of this).

What I did then was unwrap the scarf around my neck and then wrapped it again but this time making sure each loop was exactly the same length as the others.  To insure the loops stayed the same length I used my thumb to catch and hold the chained yarn each time it went around at the exact length I wanted it. I then carefully slipped it off my neck holding it firmly in both hands and place it over my knees pulling it tight so that each loop remained the same length.

To hide the knot and join the loops together I first knotted one end of a generous amount of yarn, around the chain loops themselves to help hold them together and  then started wrapping to hid the ends. I made my wrap area about 2 inches in length. To make sure that the covering would not unravel, for the final end I took my crochet hook and tucked the end into the yarn. (I used a darning needle on the green cowl I made the next day and it worked better than a crochet hook)

I loved how it turned out so much that I went on to make another red one that night, for my daughter. I couldn’t stop there though the next day I went on to make another one in green.

The green yarn was not as thick as the red so to give the cowl that bit more presence  I sewed two buttons over the area that holds the loops together and worked the ends in. I still like it a lot though.

I think both chain stitch infinity cowl scarves will be a great addition to my accessory wardrobe. I am going to pair them with my skinny jeans, tall winter boots, tank top and a long warm sweater.

I hope this tutorial inspires you to make your own. There are so many different ways to make these chain stitch scarves, you can make them longer like they did in the pins I used as inspiration (here are pin 1 and pin 2), or in a shorter cowl style like mine. You could add buttons to the joining area like I did or perhaps a crocheted flower (I have not figured out how to make those yet). The ideas are endless.

Looking for knitting and crocheting ideas? Follow my All Things Yarn board on Pinterest.