My chunky cowl pattern, #103 Luscious Cabled Cowl (available to Knitting Club Members now and coming to the Pattern Shop in 1-2 weeks) is joined together as a cowl using a "grafting" stitch that is like doing a Kitchner stitch (commonly used to do the toe seam on socks!). Here are some diagrams to show how I did it.
(Of course, those of you who like to do provisional cast-ons can do that with this cowl pattern. Then, use the Kitchner stitch to join the "live" stitches of the cast-on to the last row of sts left on the needle.)
Anyhow, back to how I grafted it:
Here is a photo showing how it looks after grafting a few stitches. Basically, grafting it (or using a Kitchner-like seam stitch) makes it look like you have no seam at all and just continuous knitting (see the photo below after a few grafting stitches have been done).
So, your seam will follow the path of a knit row and blend right in to the fabric. It's similar in feel to doing a duplicate stitch (if you are familiar with that).
You will have the RS of the work facing you AND you need to have a yarn tail that is approximately 4 times the width of the cowl to make sure you have enough to complete this seam.
Each "grafting" seam stitch begins by going under the base of a "knit" stitch from the cast on row (which you see above the knitting needle). The yarn tapestry needle is inserted under the base of the "V" of a stitch, so it's under 2 strands of yarn as shown below.
Then, pull the yarn through. Now, insert the tapestry needle under the LEFT strand/half of the knit stitch that just came off of your knitting needle and then into the stitch on your knitting needle (as if to purl it) as shown below.
Pull the yarn through. That's the basic seam stitch. Here are a few more seam stitches repeating what you just did to continue illustrating it.
Insert needle under the next st to the left under the 2 strands of the "V".
Pull yarn through and insert needle under the LEFT half of the knit st that just came off your knitting needle and into the next st on the knitting needle as if to purl.
Pull yarn though. And another time:
And so on, and so on.
Be very careful with this project that you don't miss the 3 sts that are kind of hidden under the cable twists of Cowl Row 1. You need to dig in a little to find them and make sure you catch them. There are 48 sts on the cast on row and 48 sts on your knitting needle at the end... you want to be sure to match each stitch for stitch so the seam lines up nicely.
Good luck and enjoy the finished cowl!!