After designing and knitting the new scarf pattern over the last few weeks, it made me remember some of the scarf patterns I’ve already designed – and that many of you have knitted.
It’s amazing how having a scarf, even a small scarf, on your neck can make you feel warm. Just that small amount of natural fibre can change your comfort completely, often without you even realising it’s happening.
I designed the Lily Scarf and the Catherine Cowl using cashmere yarn. There’s something so special about having this luxurious fibre around your neck. Both designs use just one hank or ball, yet they’re very different in style. What they share is the same feeling when knitting them.
The Catherine Cowl is knitted in the round, which makes it a gentle, soothing knit. It also highlights something that seems to be becoming a theme in these blogs – the duality of knitting. Those who don’t knit tend to see only the finished item. Some may even judge it. But knitting creates so much more than that. It creates the unseen: how it feels. The calm of the mind, the joy, the sense of achievement. That hour spent “doing nothing” produces something you can see and something you can feel.
Someone once said to me, while I was knitting in the studio, “Oh, you must be bored and haven’t got anything else to do,” and then they got their phone out and started scrolling. I remember thinking how strange it is that scrolling is seen as more productive than knitting. The endorphins from scrolling are fast and fleeting – like a sugar rush – so we keep chasing that feeling. Knitting, on the other hand, gives a slow, steady calm that lasts. And at the end of it, you have something to show for your “boredom” or “time wasting”.
Over the Christmas days, in between cooking and eating, I’ve been knitting a Lily Scarf. It’s just the right amount of knitting – you need to concentrate a little on the edging, but once you know it, it becomes a breeze.
I designed the Lily Scarf in 2019 for Yarndale, and it was so successful that I sold out of both the pattern and the yarn. It’s become a bit of a classic, and I’ve had a few knitters come back into the studio asking for help with it. Because I haven’t knitted it again since then, it felt almost like starting afresh.
I chose Donegal Darnie from Studio Donegal – a traditionally spun 4-ply Donegal tweed – and even the cast-on felt new to me. Usually, my excitement comes from a new yarn and a new design, where I’m knitting and thinking at the same time, not knowing how I’ll reach the final result.
Revisiting a classic is different. I already know where it’s going, so I don’t have to think about the end result – just the stitches in front of me. And yes, I reached that familiar point where knitters often worry: “This isn’t working… what have I done wrong?” Nothing at all. The stitch count goes up and down within the repeat – it’s meant to.
Once you move past that moment, it becomes a lovely, interesting knit. And I’ve really been enjoying it.