Ruffle scarf
I saw a girl wearing one of these in choir and soon aftewards, stumbled upon a picture with a link to a tutorial on the internet. Who knew there was magic yarn out there that allowed one to knit up (or crochet) a work of art in a few hours?
I ran to a local yarn store on a Saturday to get a ball of Paton's Pirouette yarn and a few anime episodes later, it was done (picture on left).
While I really enjoyed working with the yarn, I was not quite satisfied with the result. Too short, and also too much Boa scarf like. I had seen samples of the ruffles at the store and that was already a concern then. I intended this as a gift for my Mom, a classically elegant lady with simple but exquisite taste. Not the kind to wear Boa scarves. But I saw the potential. I studied the design and experimented a bit then reworked the scarf to its final form (picture on the right). I should emphasize that I used the same amount of the ruffle yarn (one skein). How did I double the magic?
To take it from fun and pretty to classy, one must understand how this magic yarn works. The basic idea is to loosen the ruffles. As a bonus, one gets a longer scarf out of one ball. Evidently a small amount of a different yarn is needed to complete the look, but that ball can come out of your stash (as it did for me), or can be less than $5.99, as it is going to be mostly hidden anyway. Before I go into the technique, here is a comparison of the original scarf (on the right) and the new one (on the needles, on the left). Notice how the ruffles are looser on the new scarf. That is the effect I envisioned and was going after.
One uses the loops on the left edge as stitches and the scarf naturally builds ruffles. The instructions indicate a needle size, but if you think about it (and experiment for 10 minutes), the size needle is irrelevant. Normally, the needles (and to a lesser extent the tension) set the size of the loops. But in this case, the loops are pre-determined. Knitted up, the "mesh" of the scarf, hidden by the ruffles looks like this:
The idea is to space out the ruffle rows by adding extra rows in between with regular yarn, so between the ruffles it now looks like this:
We have 1 ruffle row, two rows with regular yarn (you go and come back), then another ruffle row, etc...
Now the needle size does matter, as it sets the size of the loops one gets with the regular yarn. A small needle size leads to closely spaced ruffle rows, while a large needle size leads to more widely spaced ruffle rows. I found a size 6 needle (4 mm) to be best. I tried size 13 first (9 mm) so my regular yarn loops were the same size as the ruffle yarn loops, but I did not like the product. The ruffles were too spaced out and the mesh too visible. A size 6 needle makes it so that the ruffles overlap over half the ruffle row below. This gives the effect I wanted.
As for the choice of yarn, the rules are
1) in the same color palette as the ruffle yarn. In my case, I was able to get away with off white.
2) fingering weight. You can go a little heavier, but if you go too thick, you will lose the drape and the mesh might show. An option I haven't tried is lace knitting thread. It's thin and strong.
The good thing about this yarn and this project is that it is so much fun and so quick that one can experiment easily. As a matter of fact, I was happy to experiment, I wanted to play with the yarn more after I finished the scarf. It was so much fun and it was over so fast.
Now for the instructions:
First see the tutorial and practice a few rows of the normal ruffle scarf. You want to get a feel for how to work with the yarn. Also check out the Youtube video by Patons Yarn. The Youtube video tells you to knit into every other loop, which is misleading. You do want to knit into every loop, as the tutorial explains very well.
You will need:
1 ball of ruffle yarn. I love Paton's Pirouette, but Red Heart has its own, less expensive but also less designer-like.
A small amount of color coordinated, fingering weight yarn, divided. (you need two threads of it)
Size 5 knitting needles.
"Cast on" (that's real easy, see tutorial) 9 stitches with the ruffle yarn. Attach one of the balls of regular yarn and knit two rows. Keeping the regular yarn in the front of the work, knit one row with ruffle yarn. Now you are on the other side. Join the second ball of regular yarn and knit two rows with it. That's it for the setup. Now repeat:
Knit one row with ruffle yarn, 2 rows with ball #1 of regular yarn, One ruffle row, 2 rows with ball #2 of regular yarn.
If you want a longer scarf (mine is meant for petites), cast on only 8 stitches, or even 7. You will get a few extra ruffle rows, and that adds a lot to the length. The overall look of the scarf will remain the same.
Two things to watch out:
- Always keep the balls of regular yarn in the front of the work when knitting the ruffle rows, otherwise your regular yarn will get tangled with the ruffles. If that happens, undo the couple rows you knitted not realizing they were getting tangled and rework them properly. Not a tragedy, probably 30 seconds lost.
- For a cleaner finish, cross the two threads of regular yarn when you knit the second row of each regular yarn bit, just like when knitting with multiple colors. This is not too crucial in this instance, as the mesh is hidden under the ruffles, but it might prevent some snagging when the scarf is used.
For casting off, I used my regular technique. The scarf does not bunch up as much as they say in the Youtube video. The regular castoff is more economical in terms of yarn, and you can get another couple rows of ruffles. If you use the regular castoff, you need to leave a tail that has the same number of loops than stitches you have on the needles, not 3 times that many.
I ran to a local yarn store on a Saturday to get a ball of Paton's Pirouette yarn and a few anime episodes later, it was done (picture on left).
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To take it from fun and pretty to classy, one must understand how this magic yarn works. The basic idea is to loosen the ruffles. As a bonus, one gets a longer scarf out of one ball. Evidently a small amount of a different yarn is needed to complete the look, but that ball can come out of your stash (as it did for me), or can be less than $5.99, as it is going to be mostly hidden anyway. Before I go into the technique, here is a comparison of the original scarf (on the right) and the new one (on the needles, on the left). Notice how the ruffles are looser on the new scarf. That is the effect I envisioned and was going after.
In a nutshell, the new effect is obtained by knitting a slightly wider scarf, but most importantly, by working rows with a regular yarn between the ruffle rows.
How does that magic yarn work? The secret is that a lot of the knitting, or in this case crocheting has already been done at the factory. Unfolded, the yarn looks like this:
The idea is to space out the ruffle rows by adding extra rows in between with regular yarn, so between the ruffles it now looks like this:
We have 1 ruffle row, two rows with regular yarn (you go and come back), then another ruffle row, etc...
Now the needle size does matter, as it sets the size of the loops one gets with the regular yarn. A small needle size leads to closely spaced ruffle rows, while a large needle size leads to more widely spaced ruffle rows. I found a size 6 needle (4 mm) to be best. I tried size 13 first (9 mm) so my regular yarn loops were the same size as the ruffle yarn loops, but I did not like the product. The ruffles were too spaced out and the mesh too visible. A size 6 needle makes it so that the ruffles overlap over half the ruffle row below. This gives the effect I wanted.
As for the choice of yarn, the rules are
1) in the same color palette as the ruffle yarn. In my case, I was able to get away with off white.
2) fingering weight. You can go a little heavier, but if you go too thick, you will lose the drape and the mesh might show. An option I haven't tried is lace knitting thread. It's thin and strong.
The good thing about this yarn and this project is that it is so much fun and so quick that one can experiment easily. As a matter of fact, I was happy to experiment, I wanted to play with the yarn more after I finished the scarf. It was so much fun and it was over so fast.
Now for the instructions:
First see the tutorial and practice a few rows of the normal ruffle scarf. You want to get a feel for how to work with the yarn. Also check out the Youtube video by Patons Yarn. The Youtube video tells you to knit into every other loop, which is misleading. You do want to knit into every loop, as the tutorial explains very well.
You will need:
1 ball of ruffle yarn. I love Paton's Pirouette, but Red Heart has its own, less expensive but also less designer-like.
A small amount of color coordinated, fingering weight yarn, divided. (you need two threads of it)
Size 5 knitting needles.
"Cast on" (that's real easy, see tutorial) 9 stitches with the ruffle yarn. Attach one of the balls of regular yarn and knit two rows. Keeping the regular yarn in the front of the work, knit one row with ruffle yarn. Now you are on the other side. Join the second ball of regular yarn and knit two rows with it. That's it for the setup. Now repeat:
Knit one row with ruffle yarn, 2 rows with ball #1 of regular yarn, One ruffle row, 2 rows with ball #2 of regular yarn.
If you want a longer scarf (mine is meant for petites), cast on only 8 stitches, or even 7. You will get a few extra ruffle rows, and that adds a lot to the length. The overall look of the scarf will remain the same.
Two things to watch out:
- Always keep the balls of regular yarn in the front of the work when knitting the ruffle rows, otherwise your regular yarn will get tangled with the ruffles. If that happens, undo the couple rows you knitted not realizing they were getting tangled and rework them properly. Not a tragedy, probably 30 seconds lost.
- For a cleaner finish, cross the two threads of regular yarn when you knit the second row of each regular yarn bit, just like when knitting with multiple colors. This is not too crucial in this instance, as the mesh is hidden under the ruffles, but it might prevent some snagging when the scarf is used.
For casting off, I used my regular technique. The scarf does not bunch up as much as they say in the Youtube video. The regular castoff is more economical in terms of yarn, and you can get another couple rows of ruffles. If you use the regular castoff, you need to leave a tail that has the same number of loops than stitches you have on the needles, not 3 times that many.
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