I am so excited to bring to the collaboration of the year: The Checkmate Cowls.

A free Tunisian Crochet, Knitting and Crochet Cowl Pattern designed in collaboration with Mary Maxim Yarns for Stitch Up Chicago and now for everyone to enjoy!

I was so excited to welcome Mary Maxim to the sponsorship family for Stitch Up Chicago. This was my first time working with them and i had some ideas for their new Mellowspun DK. I was stoked for this But then… plans.. you know what they say.

Natalie is a real one! When my original plans for the pattern sets for Mary Maxim for Stitch Up Chicago fell through I texted Natalie… not in a panic, but not not in a panic if you know what I mean. The event was less than 2 months away and we needed to be brilliant designers with time to collaborate, tech edit and get some fun things in the hopper.

Natalie texted back within FIFTEEN minutes with this outline of an idea. OH YEA!

Then I said… wait.. WHAT IF WE THREE WAY??? ALL THRE CRAFT MEDIUMS??? So I hit up Lauren of Mother of Purl and within a minute we had a plan and within a week we had the yarn from Mary Maxim.

Talk about things falling into place!

And the best part of all? Even with the hectic timing and chaos of a fast design, we had fun!!! The three of us had a little text chat going and would bounce ideas and share progress with each other. Once we had it determined all the next steps were just FUN!

The patterns came together quite quickly and what I love the most is how you can clearly see each of us in our own design as much as you can see the cohesive nature of the trio of cowls and patterns.

Each pattern is a celebration of the stitches and the designer. The Checkmate Cowl Free Patterns allow you to truly embrace whichever craft you prefer while making something cozy and functional. Functional for the win am I right?

Lauren - who is an avid chess player and who I will not challenge at my novice levels - knocked it out of the park with the knit version and the way they incorporated the color-work for yet another layer of detail. Lauren’s keen eye for detail and colorwork presents the Knit Checkmate Cowl that even a beginner at colorwork can create. The colorwork plays on every row for a bonus in detail!

Natalie created an incredible tubular cowl for the Tunisian version. It gives and added layer of warmth without much extra work on the construction. She also made it so that with a few tweaks on the math you can really go to town and customize your width.

For the crochet cowl I wanted a cowl n’ snood effect. Something that was a cozy cowl but could easily pop up into hood action if needed… and hey, it is chicago after all! I added a strap accent to allow for some structure and also give a great chin tuck away when you activate hoody mode.

I am so proud of us and how we CRUSHED this collab and each design. Check them out and I guess the only question we have is will you make just one? Two? All three? You cannot go wrong whichever style and craft you choose.

And a HUGE shoutout to Mary Maxim yarns for their incredible support for this collaboration and this community! What an incredibly special company to work with!

Everyone at Stitch Up Chicago LOVED trying out Mary Maxim fibers and learnign about the company. So many new Mary Maxim fans were born - myself included.