Just last Thursday I released my latest design in my Ravelry Shop: Cliffhouse Cowl. This is a fun textured cowl worked using 2 colors. It’s name is a tribute to Mesa Verde National Park. Some of my readers may remember my family and I made a trip there in 2017.

I wanted to design a cowl that reminded me of the alcoves where the various cliff dwellings were built. To get the feel of the buildings in the alcove I used X-stitches. I also used X-stitches as the mesh for the main body of the cowl, for a stretchy and breathable fabric in the final project.

I’ve shared often about my favorite stitch the “V-stitch” on my blog regularly. It is a fairly simple stitch that offers a lot of choices in how it is worked.

The X-stitch is my favorite “trickier” stitch. There are still a lot of options in the fabric that can be made using the X-stitch, but the instructions can be a bit challenging to understand, especially if you are newer to crochet. In this project it is worked in turned rounds and the Xs are “stacked” on top of each other.

I am currently working on a photo tutorial for working the X-stitch both as a “stacked” stitch and as a “staggered” stitch, so if you are having a hard time with this stitch help is coming soon.