The emPower People craftivism initiative sums up my personal beliefs rather succinctly. I believe symbolism carries heft, a visual signifier of the kind of person you are. I am very selective about the symbolism I choose to adorn myself with. Making, and wearing, this cowl isn’t a flippant decision to make the new “it” thing. It, the symbolism of this cowl, embodies the beliefs I live daily; even if I’m not plastering them all over the internet.

With that stated, the creation of this project was significantly easier than my choice to make it. I wanted to try the crochet version, as I’m working on some larger projects and wanted something I could work on between larger commitments. The pattern says 3-5 hours, I say this is accurate. I think I spent 4 hours making it. Its intersectional to so many things I enjoy: social justice, stash busting, cowl, and purple.

The pattern uses a really clever no-turning-chain construction. You don’t do anything weird, just HDC into the first stitch. This does create a “hidden” stitch that is easy to forget. I have a small section near the beginning that I omitted this stitch accidentally. It wasn’t too noticeable, so I just carried on without fixing it.

Lets talk about the yarn, shall we? Its stash, deep stash. I love the color, I dyed it myself back in 2009. I used to want to be an indie dyer. While I love the color, they yarn itself isn’t too soft, not scratchy. More like RUGGED, while still being plump. Its a wool/nylon blend, heavy fingering/sport in weight. It has CRAZY sharp stitch definition, minimal halo. I worked the project up on an H/5mm hook. There isn’t considerable drape, considering the smaller weight paired with a larger hook. This may change somewhat after a bath in wool wash and vinegar, I had some color transfer from the yarn when crocheting (hence the vinegar).

I added a HDC border at the top, and a SC strip to cover up my seam. I just slip stitched on the “wrong side” (totally arbitrary as the cowl is the same on both sides), mostly because I finished this up before getting out of bed and I didn’t want to get up and get scissors and a yarn needle to do it right. I also wanted to use as much yarn as possible to get it out of my stash completely- 11 years is long enough.

So, to wrap it up: I love the message. I love the construction. I have a number of friends who also live these values. I will make this cowl again, and also try the knit and sewn versions as well. There are currently 5 versions available from the emPower site for free.