Banner Scarf

This March is our beloved Linen Quill’s 10th birthday, and what better way to mark the occasion than with a celebratory little streamer of a scarf? Our Banner Scarf pattern highlights all of Linen Quill’s most lovable attributes in a simple one-skein project you’ll want to knit again and again!

The knitting is as easy as can be, making this an ideal project for traveling, multitasking, or simply enjoying the natural beauty of a very appealing yarn. You cast on along the long side and start knitting in garter stitch, increasing at the end of every row. A handy stitch marker placed before the increases keeps track of how many stitches you’ve added—no need to count across a whole row. Then you simply taper back down to create a pointed tip, a jaunty banner shape ready to catch the breeze!

Cast on with Linen Quill and you’ll immediately see how this yarn has earned its enduring legacy and devoted following. Made in Peru, this 2-ply fingering-weight yarn is a perfectly balanced mix of fine Andean highland wool, lustrous long-fiber alpaca, and rustic linen, which tends to sprout charmingly from the strand. Knitting Linen Quill at the dense end of its gauge gives the Banner Scarf voluminous body around your neck and a graceful drape that lets the ends fall just so.

Every color in Linen Quill’s huge palette has a special heathered quality that comes from the way each fiber in the mix takes up dye a little differently, with a lovely flaxen note running throughout. This rich complexity is especially evident in textural garter stitch, which highlights the variation without competing with it.

Pick up a skein of Linen Quill in your very favorite color and cast on for a joyous pennant of color that announces your love of knitting, natural fibers, and beauty. Here’s to the first decade of Linen Quill and to many more years to come!

Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 55 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!

Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho founder and co-owner, Joelle Hoverson.

Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.

Want to print this pattern? On desktop, find the “print” icon in the right margin, and on mobile, scroll to the end of the pattern for it. Use the on-screen instructions to remove anything you don’t want to print!

Materials

• 1 skein of Purl Soho’s Linen Quill, 50% fine highland wool, 35% alpaca, and 15% linen. Each skein of this fingering-weight yarn is 439 yards/ 100 grams; approximately 430 total yards required. We used, from left to right above, High Tide, True Turquoise, Blue Thistle, and Blue Rivulet.
• US 2 (3 mm), 32-inch circular knitting needles
• Stitch markers

GAUGE

25 stitches and 60 rows (30 ridges) = 4 inches in garter stitch

SIZE

Finished Dimensions: 7 inches wide x 46 inches long at points

NOTE: This scarf is worked lengthwise, so the width listed above corresponds to the number of rows and the length corresponds with the number of stitches.

NOTES

GARTER RIDGE

A “garter ridge” equals two rows of garter stitch. It looks like a prominent horizontal ridge and is an easy way to count rows!

PATTERN

BEGIN

Cast on 236 stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.

A little tip: When you’re casting on so many stitches, it helps to place a marker or piece of scrap yarn every 50 stitches, so if/when you lose your place, you don’t have to recount from the very beginning!

Set-Up Row 1 (right side): Knit to last 2 stitches, place marker, knit front and back (kfb), k1. [1 stitch increased]

Mark previous row with removable stitch marker or piece of scrap yarn to indicate right side.

Set-Up Row 2 (wrong side): Repeat Set-Up Row 1. [2 total markers; 238 stitches; 1 garter ridge]

INCREASE

NOTE: Throughout pattern, slip markers as you come to them.

Starting with a right-side row…

Increase Row: Knit to last 2 stitches, kfb, k1. [1 stitch increased]

Repeat Increase Row 49 more times, until there are 28 stitches after each marker, ending with a wrong-side row. [288 stitches; 26 total garter ridges]

DECREASE

Starting with a right-side row…

Decrease Row: Knit to last 3 stitches, knit 2 together (k2tog), k1. [1 stitch decreased]

Repeat Decrease Row 49 more times, until there are 3 stitches after each marker, ending with a wrong-side row. [238 stitches remain; 51 total garter ridges]

Next Row (right side): Knit to last 3 stitches, remove marker, k2tog, k1. [1 stitch decreased]

Repeat last row. [236 stitches; 52 total garter ridges]

FINISHING

With right side facing you, bind off loosely knitwise.

Weave in ends, gently wet block, and enjoy!

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!