Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions.
[Oliver Wendell Holmes]

Scarf 1Patricia sat across the table from me at the Dayton Knitting Guild retreat last week. As we worked on our knitted quilt blocks she said, “I saw a scarf that I’d like to knit. Do you think you could work it into a pattern?” She described it to me adding that she liked the fact that she could wear it to keep her shoulders warm. This image fits her description. The pointed part hangs down the back.

Over the past week, I’ve been working out a pattern for her and decided I’d share it with everyone as it was a work in progress. I’m using a light DK/heavy sport-weight yarn and US size 3 needles (I’m using circular so I have room to knit the two long tails side by side).

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION—The scarf starts at the bottom front. The two long tails are worked up to the neck ending with 4 mirrored increases on each side to shape the neck slightly. Then back-of-neck stitches are cast on and the two tails are joined to form the basis of the back collar. Decreases on each side shape the back.

Actually, this is a blank canvas for a knitter’s creativity. The back could be squared off like a sailor’s collar. The long pieces can be any width or length a person desires. The pattern could be a cable, lace, texture or multicolored. I chose a simple texture pattern to test the idea, and will include the charts I’m using as I knit. Right now, I have the long pieces about half done. I’ll post photos and a printable PDF pattern of it when it is finished. Meanwhile, the following will get you started if you’d like to knit along.

BOTTOM of LONG TAIL

Scarf 2

READING the CHART:

  • Start at lower, right and read back and forth as you knit back and forth.
  • The half-circles are cast-on stitches. Cast on 35 sts.
  • The empty squares are knit sts on the right side and purl sts on the wrong side. Purl 35 sts on the first row.
  • The edge stitch is slipped at the beginning of each row to form a tidy chain edge.
  • The squares with the dots are purl sts on the right side and knit sts on the wrong side. This version creates a two-row seed stitch.

PATTERN REPEAT for LONG TAIL

Scarf 3

READING the CHART:

  • This chart is repeated lengthwise until the long tail is about 3 inches short of the desired length.
  • Continue knitting back and forth, reading the chart the same as the first chart.
  • The right side of the knitting will look similar to the chart.

PATTERN for NECK SHAPING

Scarf 4

READING the CHART:

  • This chart shows the shaping for the left long tail. The shaping for the right long tail is a mirror image of this set of increases.
  • Continue knitting back and forth, reading the chart the same as the first chart.
  • The little symbol shows that the increase is worked in the first stitch in from the border.
  • Ignore (skip over) the blank space between the border and the rest of the chart. It just allows a place to show the increases but still keeps the border in pattern.

As soon as I start working on the back collar and see how the decreases look, I’ll post the rest of the pattern.