Directions for a Crocheted Cape

Capes are coming back into fashion.

Once you have some skill wielding a crochet hook, you will be itching to try something a little more complicated than the bundles of scarves you have likely turned out. While few have patience to construct, say, an entire afghan, and the shaping required for a sweater is probably daunting, a cape or shawl is an ideal intermediate crochet project. You begin to experiment with shaping and possibly patterning, a wider variety of stitches and yarn types, and the best part is -- it's all very forgiving. The cape may not sit perfectly on your shoulders, the pattern might not be entirely symmetrical, but hey -- it's handmade, and by you!

Things You'll Need

• Size N or Q crochet hook
• 2 (or more) skeins of worsted weight yarn (you will be using two strands at once)

Instructions

1. Make a slip-knot with both pieces of yarn together -- treat them as one single piece of extra-thick yarn. This will make the cape go much faster, and the finished product will be much warmer! Make a chain 1 to 2 inches longer than the desired neck opening for your cape, by continually catching a bit of the double-strand of yarn a few centimeters away from your hook, and using the hook to pull it through the previous loop on your hook, which you then slide off.

2. Loop a bit of yarn over your hook as if to make another chain stitch, but instead of pulling this through your old loop now, catch one of the old chain stitches 2 or 3 loops back in the chain. Now, loop your double-stranded yarn over the hook, and pull this loop through the first two old loops on the hook, leaving two loops on your hook. Now loop another new bit of yarn over your hook, and pull that through the last two stitches. This is known as a "double crochet stitch."

3. Make four to five more double crochet stitches in the next several loops of the original chain, by looping a new double-strand of yarn over your hook, catching the next loop in the chain, and then pulling a new loop of yarn through the first two loops on your hook. Loop the yarn over your hook again, and now pull this through the last two stitches, to complete the stitch. In the next open loop of the chain, make two double-crochet stitches -- that is, make a double-crochet stitch, then instead of going to the next open loop, repeat a double crochet stitch in that same loop. Repeat this pattern across the row, making four to five normal stitches, and then doing an "increase" stitch by making two stitches in one of the original chain stitches.

4. Make a chain of three stitches once you have finished the first row. Turn the crocheted strip around, and do another row in a similar manner, with one double crochet stitch in each of the old stitches, and in every 4th or 5th stitch, adding an extra stitch. This will give you a gracefully curving strip.

5. Make a chain five loops long to begin the next row, and make triple-crochet stitches in each of the next three double-crochets of the previous row. To make a triple-crochet stitch, loop the yarn twice over your hook before catching your hook in the old stitch. Loop the yarn over the hook, and pull this new loop through the first two loops on your hook. Repeat this twice more: one loop, pull through two loops, one loop, pull through two loops. That's why this is called a 'triple crochet' -- you 'crochet' three times for each stitch.

6. Chain 4, skip the next two stitches, and make a triple-crochet stitch in the next stitch after that. This will make an "eyelet," or opening in the crochet, which will allow you to later thread a strip through -- which will be imperative in keeping your cape secure on your shoulders later! Across the rest of this row, make two triple-crochet stitches in the next two stitches from the previous row, make two stitches in the next one stitch to do a little more increasing, do two more triple-crochet stitches, chain 4, and repeat across the row.

7. After this eyelet row, chain 4, and do one double-crochet stitch in each of the next triple-crochet stitches. To stitch in the eyelets, loop once around the hook, then duck the hook under the chain. Pull a new loop of yarn around the entire chain, and treat this bit of yarn as the "old stitch," and proceed as for a normal double-crochet. Make three stitches in this way in each eyelet. Do several more rows as the second row -- crochet 4-5, increase 1.

8. Stop increasing once the cape has reached its desired width. To reach the desired length, chain 4, make one double-crochet stitch in each stitch of the previous row. Repeat this last row until the cape is as long as you want it! End stitching by simply cutting the yarn, and pulling it through the last loop. Pull tight.

9. Make the tie for the cape by making a slip-knot with your two strands of yarn, and chain 6. Skip the first two chains, and make three double-crochet stitches in the rest of chain. Chain 3, turn the strip, and repeat. Continue crocheting until the tie is long enough to hold your cape up securely! Thread this through the eyelets in the top of the cape by simply weaving in and out through alternating holes.