I bought some Rosarios 4 Bijou yarn in Portugal (from Ovelha Negra a wonderful shop). It is super bulky with a varied thickness and absolutely lovely to use. As soon as it was on my hook it flowed! So I wasted no time in making something with it which reminded me of our holiday in Northern Portugal.

Probably the best evening we had was the first night, it was pouring down with rain but we had the most spectacular view of the Luis I Bridge over the River Douro. It is known as the Eiffel Tower of Portugal, and is constructed from lots of grey steel.

The Bijou yarn I bought is a pale grey and as I looked at this photo of the bridge:

my mind started to think – simple steel structure, simple crochet stitches. This cowl is the result:

The stitch is simple and shows off the yarn beautifully, it is so simple it took only a few hours to make. It is also adaptable, I made it using Bijou but you can make it in any yarn as long as you use the correct hook size and start with a chain which is a multiple of 4.

The pattern is now properly written in English and US terms and is available here on Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/luis-i-cowl

Simple., beautiful and very useful. Thank you Portugal!

Happy crocheting xxxx