Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Reversible Cabled Brioche Stitch Scarf

I love this scarf! I knit my first scarf in this plush and pretty pattern from FireFlower Knits last June (green), and did another scarf in the pattern in November (purple).

Pattern: Cast on 26 stitches. Your first row is a foundation row that you knit only once: K1 (sl1, yo, K1) across until you K the last stitch. You should now have 38 stitches on your needle. For rows 1-10 and 12-22, you will knit the first and last stitches and (sl1, yo, K2tog) across the middle. Row 11 has two cables: K1, CF, (sl1, yo, K2tog) four times, CF, K1. Row 23 has one cable: K1 (sl1, yo, K2tog) four times, CF, (sl1, yo, K2tog) four times, K1. You repeat rows 1-23 to create the pattern.

Do the cable front (CF) like this: slip 6 stitches (yarn overs do count as a stitch) on the cable needle and hold in front, (sl1, yo, K2tog) twice from left needle, then put the six stitches you slipped onto the cable needle back on the left needle and (sl1, yo, K2tog) twice. You could just finish the CF from the cable needle, but it is much easier to do when you slip it back onto the needle.

This pattern is fun to knit, although it can be tricky to cable--don't cable too tightly, especially the double cable on row 11! Slip stitches purlwise with yarn in front. The yarn over will cross over the slipped stitch--don't worry because you will knit the slipped stitch and the yarn over together in the next row.

For the green scarf, I used size 7 needles and four skeins (a little less than 400 yards) of Knit Picks Andean Silk in Lettuce, a soft worsted weight yarn.

For the purple scarf, I used size 7 needles, and 2 skeins (a little under 400 yards) of Naturally Caron Country yarn in Berry Frappe.

Brioche stitch is thick, warm, and soft. If you've never knitted brioche stitch, there is a great explanation on Cloudy Crochet.

Once you get the hang of it, brioche stitch has a nice rhythm to it: bring yarn under the right needle to the front and slip one stitch purl-wise, then bring yarn over the right needle to back (this is the yarn over) to knit 2 together. After you knit 2 together, you bring the yarn in front, slip a stitch, bring the yarn in back (or "yarn over") and knit 2 together. You are essentially winding the yarn around the right needle as you alternately slip 1 and then knit 2 together.

8 comments:

Marlene Dufresne said...

This is a really nice pattern! Thanks for sharing, I'll be making one for my daughter who is scarf crazy!!! And I'm always looking for something interesting, after all, a scarf can get pretty boring if the pattern does not hold your attention.

Marlene

Anonymous said...

I'm going to attempt this pattern right now. Yours are so pretty and thank you for sharing. Just one question, how do you bind off?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. It's a really nice pattern.

Anonymous said...

Great pattern! Thanks so much for sharing it.

ELENA said...

Muito lindo!

Anonymous said...

I love the look of this pattern. After a few false starts, I'm trying it again. The picture looks like it should be 3 CFs in row 11. I have a much larger section of brioche in between the two CFs than what appears in the picture. Is that how it looks in the beginning?

Anonymous said...

HELP! Please. I'm having difficulty knitting the brioche cables. The pattern reads "2 cables on row 11" and "1 cable on row 23". My scarf doesn't look like the one in the photo online. Should there be more CFs in both rows?

Anonymous said...

is a video available?