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Lavender Scarf Pattern

Alexis Hoy

My Lavender Scarf pattern is now available.

The comfort and elegance of lavender is rendered here in a fascinating knitted stitch. It is simple to do, yet produces an intricate effect (and at the heart of it, isn’t that why we all love to knit?).

The scarf progresses in a soothing repeat that is easy to follow or customize, and never gets boring. This pattern is made for hand-dyed variegated yarn. The colours won’t get lost in the stitch pattern, and conversely, the stitch pattern is showcased by the changing shades.

Made in luxurious fingering weight superwash merino, this is the perfect scarf for transitioning seasons.

I picked up this yarn at last year's KW Guild Knitter's Fair not knowing what I would do with it, but knowing I had to have it. The yarn is Indulgent Fingering by Yarn Indulgences, beautifully hand-dyed 100% superwash merino. There's a photo of the skein in my Instagram feed, and I think you'll agree that I HAD to bring it home with me.  Trolling over the YI website the last few days while getting this pattern ready to launch, I've been no less impressed by the colourways Deborah has available right now - be forewarned: you might not be able to resist!

The availability and creative spectrum of hand-dyed luxury yarns is growing exponentially these days, and I so often find myself seduced by the colour combinations in a single skein.  My stash is a testament to my colour obsession, and my brain is a catalogue of colour balance: if I have too much in the pink-red-burgundy family, I swing over to stock up on greens-turquoises-teals for a while; I am always a bit nervously aware that blue is under-served in my colour-patronization, though I challenge anyone to name a colour that I CAN'T produce from my boxes, shelves, baskets and bins (usually in under 30 seconds, to boot).

The only problem (and I hesitate to use that word, because really, when is more yarn ever a problem?) with this growth in the variegated yarn category is that they can be hard to match to any stitch pattern other than straight-up stockinette.  Ho hum.  Unless the variegation is a subtle shift of the single dye shade (à la MadTosh), the variegation can actually smother a beautiful stitch pattern.  There's just too much going on - knitting sensory overload!

Of course I'm hardly the only one out there trying to find creative ways around this conundrum - there are a lot of beautiful patterns using variegated yarn that also incorporate interesting stitches.  But... there are also yards and yards of variegated stockinette out there in the world.

When I started swatching this pattern, that's what I was trying to avoid.  I wanted to showcase the brilliant colours of this yarn AND not bore myself to death.  The whole driving force behind my personal knitting obsession is to occupy that fidgety portion of my brain that starts spinning like a hamster wheel if I'm, say, JUST watching a movie, or JUST reading a book, or, you know, JUST riding a stationary bike... But that same portion of my brain starts up its circus act during long stretches of stockinette.  What to do with all my lovely skeins of hand-dyed multi-coloured perfection? Watch a movie, knit stockinette, AND spin a basketball on my right big toe... perhaps.

OR: Spend hours matching stitches to yarn.  This is an infinitely more feasible, enjoyable, and fruitful plan, because it has resulted in this beautiful scarf pattern, with a stitch that actually accentuates the colour-changes in the yarn.  I had to italicize it, because I'm so pleased.  The eyelets are made with elongated stitches, which means that the colour changes at a different rate over the lavender motifs and pools it together in a way that pulls out each individual colour in the yarn.  Add to that the fact that every lavender stem is a different length than the one that came before, and I guarantee you will never find yourself wishing for a basketball.

Some gratuitous cuteness - Connor demanded his picture be taken during the photoshoot for the pattern.  I told him he had to wear the scarf because that was the "job" we were trying to get done.  He was happy to contribute. Some gratuitous cuteness - Connor demanded his picture be taken during the photoshoot for the pattern. I told him he had to wear the scarf because that was the "job" we were trying to get done. He was happy to contribute.[/caption]


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