Introducing the Honey Scarf

OK, so at the beginning of the year 2017 I promised one pattern every week and some of you may have noticed that I didn’t introduce you to a new pattern last week. I had the design ready. I have loads of designs ready and not ready, and even more ideas….I love designing and I love hand knits. Every time I see a ball of yarn, (which is every day!) an idea pings in my head!

The reason I didn’t get to share a new pattern with you last week was because I had the flu. Not just the runny nose kind, but the kind that knocks you out. I had to shut the studio for a couple of days, which I really do not like doing. I only close the studio if I can’t stand! This is one of the things that happens when you are an independent hand knit designer, or any person who runs their own business – when you get ill there isn’t anyone to phone in sick to!

So today is last week’s pattern and this week’s pattern, well I’m gonna have to squeeze that in somewhere!!

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Anyway… the new pattern is the Honey Scarf, knitted in one of the newest yarns to the Purl&Jane Yarn family – Soft Donegal. It’s a chunky merino wool that is spun in Donegal, Ireland, the only place to get tweed spun.

This chunky scarf for both men and women is a simple cable stitch pattern with garter stitch edging.

I designed the Honey Scarf because I love a cable scarf, but for scarves I prefer there not to be an obvious ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ side. I like both sides to look like they are the ‘right side’. And because I have already designed with the honeycomb cable pattern,  I knew that if I put a purl stitch in the pattern, instead of a knit stitch then both side of the scarf look the same.

I used garter stitch at each other of the cable like a starter and dessert with the cable being the main meal!

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It means you can start the row without having to think about it, like a running start, oh, just a few stitches to warm you up for the main show, and the twisting of the stitches to create the cable. And then after the cable there is garter stitch at the edges of the row too, like a warm down after the cable.

To me, the knitting of the design is just as important as the way the design looks. I like to share the joy of knitting, and I like to make sure my patterns are simple to follow and simple to knit. If you are new to cables this can seem like a tricky pattern but once you’ve worked a few repeats it’ll get easier and by the end you’ll be a cable expert!

I love the history of knitting and this includes the history of stitches. The cable stitch has traditionally been used in fisherman sweaters and it was traditionally considered to give fisherman luck or protection or abundance of fish! My favourite cable stitch is the honeycomb cable, and if you know my patterns you might notice one or two of them use this stitch technique! The honeycomb stitch, representing a bee, is often used to represent hard work and its rewards – so this is a scarf with lots of significance!

Article by Jane