It seems that every fall there is a new novelty scarf to be made. It usually takes just a ball of yarn and makes a quick (relatively), inexpensive Christmas gift. Or just something to wrap around your neck and complement whatever you’re wearing.Well, this season is no different. This year seems to be the year of the ruffled scarf. Quite a few manufacturers have come out with a ribbon-like yarn that has what appears to be ladders on the top of it that run parallel with the ribbon.
You can see from the picture above exactly what I mean. The scarves are very simple to make. You cast on by simply threading your needle through the rectangular loops created by the ladders, skipping a “rung” after every two, and then knit in garter stitch for the entirety of the scarf. You cast off as you normally would and viola, you have a riffled scarf.
The extent of the ruffle is determined by the amount of holes you skip as you knit. The thing to be cautious of however is that the more you skip, the more yarn you will need. It will however greatly increase the extent of the ruffle. The instructions are usually supplied with the yarn or printed on the ball band, and quickly learned. Even though it is simple garter stitch, it will require you looking at your work when you make one of these however, as you have to make sure to get the needle in the proper holes.
The different yarns are priced from approximately $5 – $18 depending on the length and width of the scarf you want. The ones above are made with Rizos by Katia, but a trip to your LYS will give you many more examples of yarns suitable for this scarf. You could also use this yarn as an embellishment on something else – cuffs perhaps? You might want to try one before the Christmas rush sets in! Of course, you could also get yourself a 2012 calendar with 13 scarf patterns as well!
Hugzzz 😎