Spring yarns are coming in, spring classes are posted, we’re even having spring weather for a couple of days! I perversely am going to talk about a fall fashion trend but I have a good reason: it’s a great travel project. The trend is for light scarves that are very wide and very long, which makes them very versatile.
Chanel went wild with the look, using multiple ethnic prints to make their statement. The wraps are woven, of course, and the lengths somewhat unmanageable but we are clever enough to adapt the look for real life, aren’t we?
Sonia Rykiel also used the look, in a double-breasted version:
and here is another take on the trend, cabled and striped:
I love this trend because, even though I love cowls and infinity scarves – by the way, don’t put them away yet! This is a good time of year to wear them – you’ll be wanting to get out your lighter weight clothes and wear more open necklines, but a cowl thrown over them won’t look too heavy and will keep you warm even when you’re ahead of the weather… What was I saying? Oh, yes, I really love these big scarves. I’m in the middle of two of them right now and keep thinking that this is the kind of thing you want to take on a plane or on a long car trip, or to wind down after a day outside.
I’m making Tonny Shankland’s Multigrain Scarf with six different Shibui skeins, mixing Pebble, Cima, and Silk Cloud. It’s lovely, and very easy seed stitch. She designed it using all natural colors:
I’m mixing neutrals with one wonderful color:
Any of the gorgeous Shibui colors would work with a background of these neutrals. It’s not a fast project by any means but it’s lovely and relaxing to work on.
I’m also doing another big scarf using two-color brioche stitch and Fino, one of our favorite yarns from Manos. Fairmount Fibers’ website has several lovely patterns for big scarves using Manos yarns.
Here is Churros, the one I’m making, except I’m using silver and dark blue-purple for mine. It takes one skein of each color. I’m about 20 inches into it and have hardly made a dent in the amount of yarn, so it will be a sizable scarf. Brioche stitch takes a while to do but it makes a fluffy, squishy fabric like no other:
Here’s a lovely crochet scarf, called Lubina Wrap, from their website that is tempting me mightily:
Another of my favorite yarns is Fibre Company’s Meadow, a light lace-fingering blend of alpaca, linen, silk. Grace Anna Farrow designed several big wraps for them when Meadow was introduced. These are my favorites:
Cepa, a take on the chevron trend:
and Ursa, lovely stripy blocks of color:
I want this one!!
Purl Soho has also just come out with a new free pattern called the Arctic Wrap. Love it, but think it’s linen stitch all the way, and that will take even more time than my brioche-stitch scarf.
All the patterns are available from the websites except Multigrain, which is available free with purchase of Shibui yarns at the shop. Except for the Arctic Wrap, we can also sell you all the other patterns shown here, and we’ll print them for you as well.
Next time I’ll be catching up with new yarns and customer projects…See you soon!
