The Design

“Just enough ruffle.”

Our accountant Barb Steinberg is a masterful weaver but claims she’s “not much of a knitter.” She arrived one month-end wearing this charming scarf and, when we asked for the pattern, she said she wasn’t quite sure what she’d done. Well, we took it off her, dissected it, wrote it up, and the now-famous Barb’s Koigu Ruffle has become one of our most popular patterns ever. “Not much of a knitter” indeed!

See how we've used this pattern!

The Details

FINISHED SIZE
Approx. 6"/15cm x 22"/56cm; will stretch in length with wearing.

YARN
2 skeins Koigu KPPPM (175 yds/160m each); shown in Color 105D.
Or approx. 350 yds/320m of an equivalent fingering-weight yarn.

NEEDLES
US 4 (3.5mm) 24"/60cm circular, or size to get gauge.
US 6 (4mm) 24—32"/60—80cm circular, or 2 sizes larger than size to get gauge.

GAUGE
Approx. 24 sts = 4"/10cm in stockinette stitch on smaller needles.

KNITTER'S NOTES

This stockinette stitch scarf is knit lengthwise. You start with 600+ stitches, do a number of decrease rows, knit straight, then do a number of increase rows. The finished dimensions are spot on for wearing loosely wrapped around the neck with the ruffles softly framing your face. As it says in the pattern—"a little ruffle goes a long way."

600+ stitches is a lot of stitches to cast-on no matter what method you choose. We recommend a cable cast-on because of the nice edge it creates when knitting in stockinette stitch. If you prefer to use a long-tail cast-on, and are worried about having a long enough "tail", try this method: take the beginning and end strands from your ball and tie them together in a knot, about 8" from the end. Now use each of these strands to do your long-tail cast-on. When you complete the cast-on, cut one of the strands loose, leaving an 8 inch tail. You're left with two extra ends to weave in, but no worries about running out of yarn!