Fall has always been my favorite season -- the weather, the apples, the warm color palate, and, yes, the pumpkins!

It’s also the perfect time of year for crocheting warm accessories.

I created the original oversized (“bodacious”) cowl using a wonderful tonal orange that was perfect for autumn events, the first of which was the fall festival at our Zoo.

My youngest son bears the nickname “Pumpkin” (a carry-over from my own childhood nickname that was most often mispronouced as “Punkin”). I saw a photo of the two of us at the Zoo that day, me in my new orange cowl, both of us looking happy and snug, and knew immediately that this had to be the Pumpkin -- or, just for fun -- Punkin Cowl.

It has since become the single most complimented accessory I own.

Pick a warm and beautiful yarn and let your hooks do the work with easy, no increase or decrease shaping. Make it in the bodacious size for a statement accessory or in the bitsy size for something that will fit inside your coat. Either way, it’s easy and beautiful, and will become THE warm accessory you turn to throughout fall and winter.