My lovely friend Tan adores green.  She also lives in a place where it gets rather cold.  So I crocheted her a gift.

The cowl is the Wintergreen Cowl by Ellen Gormley. I have crocheted this pattern before, and find it a lovely cowl to wear. It sits beautifully around the neck like a crocheted collar.

I used Cascade Yarns Cascade 220 in Highland Green, purchased from my favourite local yarn shop Woolarium. The colour screamed Tanya to me. It’s a worsted weight, around 10 ply. I combined it with a 5.00mm hook.

This is a very fast item to crochet, once you get your head around the basic pattern. It’s actually Bruges lace, but worked in 10 ply, so the effect is completely different from the usual Bruges lace worked in thread or very fine yarn. I really like the arches and loops. It used about 1.2 skeins of yarn. This left me with enough to crochet matching boot toppers.

There are loads of free patterns out there on the internet for crocheted (or knitted) boot toppers. I chose to use the Belmont Boot Toppers pattern by Jenn Wolfe Kaiser. Once again, I used a 5mm hook. This pattern comes in a variety of sizes, so it helps to know calf measurement before you start. I called on another friend who I know wears similar size shoes to measure hers! That way I was able to keep my gift a surprise.

These boot toppers combine stitches that I rather enjoy working, with the crocheted BLO rib and shells on top. I had been dubious about boot toppers as a general concept, but Tan has assured me that they actually do provide warmth as well as providing a fashion statement! I really enjoyed crocheting this set, and suspect that I will return to this pattern combination over time.