Want to know how to crochet an infinity scarf? This wonderful tutorial will have you crocheting your scarf in no time. The best part is you don't even have to follow a pattern! No pattern required.
How to Crochet
My mother taught me how to crochet. She was a master. She made beautiful lacy doilies and tablecloths and mittens and scarves and over a hundred crocheted throws and blankets and gave them all away as gifts.
I am not a master. She tried to pass on her skills to me, but became frustrated because I am a lefty and therefore do everything backwards! Also, I didn't have to patience to perfect my crocheting skills, and to this day, single and double crochet are about as fancy as I get.
However, I do have a skill, which is serving me well in my new homesteading endeavor. I don't need a pattern to crochet. Actually, to be truthful, patterns don't serve me well. With my limited skills they are either hard for me to figure out, or else I'm not neat enough to get the correct result, OR, the created objects just don't fit me right. For instance, I have huge piano-playing hands, which do not lend themselves well to fitting into the pretty girly mittens and gloves I would like to be able to make or buy.
So, I don't use a pattern, and frankly, NOTHING BAD HAPPENS! In fact, it's a really freeing experience, because I know I can be totally off the grid, and I can still make items that fit every member of our household. Knowing that I can make warm mittens and scarves and hats and cowls without any pattern is a useful skill for any homesteader.
I'd like to demonstrate how easy it can be to make items like this without a pattern by showing How To Crochet a Cowl, aka an Infinity Scarf:
I am going to assume that you have a little crocheting experience. If not, there are lots of videos online to show you the basics and let you practice. If you think you can do the following: slip knot, chain, slip stitch, single and double crochet, you are ready for this first project. Let's make a beautiful custom-made-for-you-cowl.
If you don't know what a cowl is, it's like a tube top for your head 🙂 . It's A scarf with no end, that can be used as a hoodie.
To start, all you need is a crochet hook and some yarn, and a yarn needle. I used a size J hook and 7 ounces of medium weight yarn. You can go bigger or smaller, and nothing bad will happen. In fact, if crocheting scares you because of all these numbers, just buy whatever the store sells, the standard sizes work great!
I love this yarn! It is 70% acrylic, 30% wool. Very soft and drapey and warm. I am also a fan or variegated yarn, because it's always a surprise how it's going to look when it is done! Use whatever yarn makes you happy!
When you are deciding how to make your cowl, think about whether you want it to be able to go around your neck once or twice. I like to make it long enough to double, so I can wear it either way.
How to Crochet an Infinity Scarf – Without a Pattern:
Step 1 – Slip Knot
Start by making a slip knot on your hook.
Step 2 – Chain Stitch
Then you are going to make a chain. Remember, to make a chain, you loop the yarn once, then pull it through. Repeat this step to make a chain.
Need some help? Watch this quick video for the details:
Step 3 – Make a Long Enough Chain For Your Circle Scarf
Since you don't have a pattern, you need to make a decision here. Make your chain long enough so that it wraps around you neck as loosely as you would want it to fit, either once or twice. I chained 150 to go around loosely twice. It all depends on the size of your yarn and hook. 80 stitches or so would work if I just wanted to go around a single time.
Step 4 – Straighten Your Chain
Now you will want to straighten out your chain so your project isn't twisted. Run your fingers down the length of the chain, looking for little hearts, like this:
Step 5 – Loop It
This is the front side. Once you have your chain untwisted, slip stitch in the back of the first chain to make your chain stitches into an endless loop. Remember, slip stitch is where you have the two stitches on your hook, yarn over, and pull through both of the loops.
Now you can stop counting! That's something I like about this project, because I can crochet while I'm watching TV or riding with my husband in the car, and I don't have to think so hard!
Step 6 – Crochet Over Entire Loop
For the first row, you can single crochet in all of your chain stitches. Single crochet is where you go through the chain stitch, yarn over, pull through one loop, yarn over, pull through two loops. If you would rather use double crochet, that is good, too. Double crochet is yarn over first, then go through the chain stitch, yarn over, go through one loop, yarn over, go through two, yarn over, go through two. Keep going until you have made a whole row of either single or double.
Step 7 – Keep Crocheting
When you get done with the first row, your stitches will look like those little hearts of your chain again. You will insert your hook in the middle of the heart for each stitch. You can also insert it under the heart. It works either way. You will want to decide when you start each new row whether to use a single or double crochet. Then just go around again. And again. And again. Just make as many rows of single or double crochet as you think you need. You will know you can be done if you can slip the cowl over your head and it looks the way you want it to. I like to wear mine as a hoodie in cold weather, so I think it has to be at least a foot wide to pull up that way. This one is 13 inches and I used a mixture of stitches: 6 rows of double crochet and 18 rows of single crochet.
Step 8 – How To Finish the Yarn
When you get to the end of the last row, make a loop with your yarn. Cut off the yarn and pull it through the loop tightly. This photo is just an example on a scrap of yarn.
Step 9 – TIP To Thread Yarn Needle
Then take a yarn needle and thread it. I use a piece of paper folded around the end of the yarn to easily get the yarn through the eye of the needle.
Step 10 – Hide The Ends
Then weave the ends in and cut off whatever remains of the loose end.
So, here is the end result.
It is soft and drapey in colors that make me happy.
Anyway, I hope this idea give you a starting off point to be creative and make your own unique cowl. Find some yarn that makes you happy, and have fun!
What do you think of this tutorial on how to crochet? Let us know in the comments section what your thoughts are on how to crochet a cowl scarf. Which one will you try? Let us know how it went and share your experience with us in the comment section below.
Have any homesteading projects you’d like to share? Share it with us an we’ll give it a try. We’d love to know what you think!
Very pretty scarf. But it looks like you did some stitch/skips in the DC rows. I wish you had given a little more detail because I really like the way it looks.
FYI: slip stitch = insert hook in work, yarn over and pull through work, then pull through original loop on hook.
Single crochet = insert hook in work, yarn over and pull through work, yarn over again and pull through both loops on hook.
Double crochet = yarn over, insert hook in work, yarn over and pull through work, yarn over again and pull through first 2 stitches on hook, yarn over again and pull through remaining 2 loops on hook.
Also, the only time being left handed would matter with crochet is if you were reading a diagram/graph of the pattern instead of the written instructions. In this case, you would read from the opposite side of where to begin.
I am a lefty also and was told I was doing everything backwards also while I was growing up.
I think this is great. I learned to knit and crochet as a kid and now do both. Recently I taught myself Tunisian crochet too. I like crochet for more things than knitting (though it has advantages for some types of yarn especially). Not making things just because you don’t have a pattern or can’t read it can hold you back. Also, a lot of the fun is how relaxing it is just using your hands and enjoying the look and feel of the thing you’re making. Sometimes patterns are too stressful and require too much focus (though I use them when I want to do that). I often take some yarn I like and make either short cowls, long infinity scarves and/or narrow head bands or wide ear warmers. None of those require a pattern and all of them let me play around with new types of stitches I might like to learn or just have fun with a great yarn.
Thanks for sharing this “NO Pattern” practice of enjoying crochet.