Beautiful Spring Scarf
There’s a fine line between a fringe that puts a swing in your step and a fringe that makes you feel like a bedraggled alley cat. A fine line maybe, but a world of difference. This fringe is certainly the fabulous kind, the kind that gives you special powers of infectious happiness!
The secret to this fringe’s sass is our new Chinese Knotting Cord, a thin nylon cord more traditionally used for hand crafted jewelry. As fringe, it is smooth and tangle-free, nimble and zippy! And using two slightly different electric pinks lends an extraordinary glow, enough to light up the night!
The fringe is exciting, but what fills me with deep satisfaction is Jade Sapphire’s new cashmere-linen blend, Sylph. Exquisite cashmere and straight-from-nature linen, together they are pure beauty. Some people remember the best sunsets of their lives, the best tiramisus, the best arias, but for knitters, it’s all about the best yarn, and this one is definitely on my list!
Okay, it’s not just the fringe and the yarn, it’s the whole thing together. The contrast of the soft and rustic yarn with the galactic nylon fringe, the sumptuous feeling, the generous size, the serious fun, it all makes the Beautiful Spring Scarf one of my favorite projects ever. And the good news is you don’t have to be an expert knitter to make one. If you can cast on, knit, purl and bind off, you can make your very own Beautiful Spring Scarf! Really! -Whitney
Designed by Purl Soho designer, Whitney Van Nes.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, #PurlSohoBeautifulSpringScarf. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Materials
- 4 skeins of Jade Sapphire’s Sylph, 58% Cashmere and 42% Linen. Each skein is 309 yards/ 50 grams; approximately 1236 yards required. This color is Rustle. (Please Note: Sylph is no longer available. We recommend using 3 skeins of our Linen Quill!)
- 4 bobbins of Chinese Knotting Cord, 1mm, 100% Nylon: 2 bobbins of Fluorescent Pink and 2 bobbins of Neon Pink. (Note: If you want to use the same color for both ends of fringe, three bobbins will be enough.)
- US 3 (3.25 mm) knitting needles, circular or straight.
- A small crochet hook, size C, D or E.
Gauge
7 2/3 stitches = 1 inch in stockinette stitch
Size
14 inches wide x 82 inches long (not including 9-inch fringe at each end)
Pattern
Cast on 107 stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.
Row 1 (wrong side): Purl.
Row 2 (right side): Knit.
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you’ve used all but about a yard and a half of the four skeins (or until the piece measures 82 inches from the cast on edge).
Bind off loosely on a right side row.
Fringe
Cut 36 eighteen-inch pieces of each color of Chinese Knotting Cord. Keep the two colors separated; one color is for one end of the scarf and the other is for the other end.
Starting with either color and either end of the scarf…
Fold one strand in half and grasp it firmly nearly the fold.
Starting at the corner, one stitch from the selvedge, insert the crochet hook from the back (purl) side to the front (knit) side.
With the hook, grab the Knotting Cord at its fold and pull it through to form a loop.
Hook the tails of the cord…
…and pull them through the loop. Pull the tails nice and tight. (They should stay snug, but if you ever notice them loosening, just give them a little tug!)
Make the next fringe 3 stitches away from the first.
Continue to add a fringe every three stitches all the way to the corner.
Using the second color, make the fringe at the other end in exactly the same way.
NOTE: The ends of Chinese Knotting Cord can be sealed with a flame. To put fears of unraveling to rest just give each end a quick flick of the flame! If you go fast, the heat won’t discolor the cord. Longer exposure to the flame will turn the end a bit darker, although not black.
Hi,
Beautiful! One problem – the chinese knotting cord does not stay secure and I am constantly having to tug on the fringes to secure them in place. Is there an alternative way to secure the fringes?
Thanks,
Emma
Hi Emma,
Hmmm… Did you definitely use the thinner Knotting Cord, the 1mm instead of the 1.4mm? If so and you’re still experiencing this problem, maybe you’d have better luck tying each fringe in a square knot. It is Knotting Cord, after all!
I’m sorry you’ve had this frustration and I hope an actual knot solves the problem. Please let us know if you need more help and we’ll find a solution!
Whitney
I am planning to use the anzula mermaid and use a 1×1 rib so it stays flat. Since it won’t be curling, would you recommend casting on fewer stitches to get the same approximate width, and if so, how many?
Hi Sarah-
You will actually have to cast on more stitches since the ribbing pulls together. We would recommend that you do a gauge swatch in the ribbing pattern. Then from there you can measure how many stitches per inch you will be getting to determine how many to cast on.
Good luck with the project and please let us know if you have any more questions!
Molly
Love Love Love this scarf. Thank you for the beautiful pattern. Tried looking for the jade sapphire sylph yarn……but it looks like it has been discontinued? Can you please recommend a similar yarn?
Thank you so much!
PS I’ll be coming to NYC next month and look forward to visiting your store 😉
Hello Robyn!
The yarn is still available here: https://www.purlsoho.com/sylph.html
We’re so glad that you enjoy this elegant scarf! We’ll be so glad to see you in NYC as well! -Alyson
I LOVE all your patterns! I only wish I could download a PDF of the free ones right into my Ravelry account. Is there any way to do this? Thank you for sharing such beautiful patters!!
Hi Michelle!
Thank you so much for writing in and thank you for your kind words! Unfortunately, we don’t have a way to download a PDF of our free patterns to Ravelry accounts. You can definitely download a PDF to your computer, tablet and phone! If you’re on a desktop version of the site, you will find a “print” icon in the right column just below the date and tags. If you’re on a mobile version of the site, you will find a “print” icon below the pattern and above the comments.
Follow the easy on-screen instructions to delete whichever parts of the pattern you don’t want to print or save. For example, you may decide to shorten the pattern by omitting certain images or the list of materials. I hope that helps!
Best,
Kumeko