You may remember seeing the Coliseum Cowl pattern last month when I released it as a part of the Crochet For Me Lace Bundle. Well, the bundle is no longer available, but now this beautiful cowl is available as an individual pattern!

Inspiration for the Coliseum Cowl

In this time when it’s hard to travel to the store, let alone half-way around the world, we’re making a trip to Rome!

The cowl was inspired by the Colosseum in Rome. I thought the “windows” surrounded by the support structures around the openings would make an amazing design.

Making a filet-type open stitch is easy but I wanted it rounded at the top just like you see in the photo. I was super-excited when I figure out how to make that work in crochet stitches.

My version, in the cowl, has additional “support structures” – more rows in between the “windows”, but hidden in each of those rows are some fun stitches to play with!

Choose your color(s)

I first made the Coliseum Cowl using nine different mini skeins of fingering/sock weight yarn. I love how bright and colorful it turned out. It should match practically everything in my closet! That yarn comes from Chicken Lady Fiber Arts in the Serama base. She doesn’t sell the mini skeins – I won them in a contest she held. But all of the different colors are listed on the pattern page.

Rather than buying mini skeins, if you have scraps of fingering/sock weight yarn that are approximately 46 yds / 10g, it would be a great way to use up those scraps!

I was also curious how the Coliseum Cowl would look in a solid or semi-solid/tonal colorway. In some ways, I prefer this one over the rainbow version! I made this using a locally dyed yarn by a shop that sadly went out of business a couple of months ago. However, the Chicken Lady Fiber Arts website has several solid/tonal yarns that would be an excellent substitute.

It looks fabulous against white and black (but don’t look too closely at the model; she needed a haircut! LOL)

Flat to Round

The Coliseum Cowl is crocheted side to side in short rows approximately 6 1/2″ (16.5 cm) across until it’s long enough to join the beginning and end together to form a cowl. You could leave the ends open, resulting in a beautiful scarf.

What is your preference?

How will you make your Coliseum Cowl: in a variety of bright colors, more muted tones, or one single color?