This project occurred because of the convergence of two events.

About a year and a half ago, my mother and I went to a local yarn shop and I saw some Malabrigo Rios yarn in Bobby Blue that was sublime.  And, although I’ve crocheted since I was nine years old, I had never really worked with the “good stuff” (Scheepje’s yarns excepted…) To mark the occasion, my mother bought me two skeins of it.

So the pressure was on: what could I make that would be worthy of this yarn? And what to make with 420 yards of it? I found a few ideas, but they didn’t seem to match with the yarn’s texture. So I set it aside and waited for inspiration.

The second event occurred when I finished my last cardigan. I really liked the texture of it and then recalled a project I had done for my sister last winter, which was a cowl — not one of those double-wrap infinity scarves, but a wider tube about a foot tall. So I decided to merge the texture of the one and structure of the other into one project.

This cowl used two skeins of Malabrigo Rios yarn and one 6.5mm hook.

Chain 82 and join to the first chain with a slip stitch. SC and DC in the first chain, skip a chain and do SC and DC in the third chain. Repeat around the entire circle and join to the first stitch with a slip stitch. Flip your work around and do SC and DC in first stitch, then skip a stitch and repeat the SC and DC into the single crochet stitch. Repeat until the end and join to the first stitch with a slip stitch. Continue to go back and forth, repeating until you run out of yarn. I was able to do forty-nine rows, with a few yards left over.

I like this texture so much, I plan to create another sweater using it.  I’m already working out the design for a two-toned pullover, so it looks like I’ll be posting another pattern on Ravelry.  I have a back-log of projects for other people, so it will not appear right away.

This picture really doesn’t do justice to the gloriousness of this yarn, so you’ll have to trust me on it.