New Project: Red Scarves

You've heard of the famous red scarf project no doubt.

I just started a red scarf project of my own.

I really want to knit a scarf for my niece K, who's about to start her senior year in high school.

I collected supplies and patterns - from my files at home and from ravelry.


With a scarf for K in mind, I brought home 3 skeins of Misti Alpaca Hand-dyed Baby Alpaca in worsted weight from WEBS. This is color 03 according to the skein, which looks like it's called "Inca Red".

I picked out 5 patterns that I thought would work well for this yarn and look good on K.


Here are my five swatches all in a row. It's interesting to see how they look in a photo instead of in person. The strong diagonal in the swatch between the yellow and white dividers isn't nearly as noticeable in person.

I knitted all swatches (except one that I'll note later) on size 9 needles because that's a size I had. You can find all but one of these patterns on Ravelry.

Sunday, at a family gathering, K chose her favorite scarf. She felt like it was a hard decision, so all of the scarves are winners....but in order from least favorite to most here are the swatches.

Fifth place: Midwest Moonlight by Ivy Bigelow in Scarf Style

The original pattern called for DK or sport weight yarn, plus was not done in a variegated yarn. I felt like the variegated color and the pattern the stitches created fought with each other in this swatch.

Fourth Place: Heart's Content Scarf from Beyond Basic Knitting (Not on ravelry)

This scarf is knit on the bias. Fun to knit and probably fun to wear, it was a little too thin and light for K's idea of a winter scarf.

Third place: Scrunchable Scarf

I had tons of trouble figuring this scarf out because the pattern doesn't quite say what to do with the two extra stitches at the edges. Once I figured it out, I liked it - it's ribbed, but not just plain old boring ribbing.

For the record, I did cast on a multiple of 3, then cast on 2 more stitches. In each row, I slipped the first stitch, and knit the last stitch. For all the stitches in between, I just did the stitches the pattern says.

Very close second: Misti Chunky Ribs & Ruffles Scarf

This scarf surprised me by being my second favorite, and K's also. It's very simple, but it looks really cool in this yarn. (My picture does not do it justice.)

Since the pattern called for Chunky yarn, I followed the advice of several other knitters and used 2 strands of my worsted weight yarn. I lined up the colors so the two strands are going through their color changes at the same time.

I knitted on size 15 needles (even though when I do a scarf following this pattern I will drop back to size 13 as recommended.)

This pattern knits up super fast (size 15 needles will do that!).

Luckily, there should be enough yarn left from K's scarf to make a scarf out of this pattern. It would look great on my sister-in-law J!!!

And the winner is.....

Misty Garden by Jo Sharp in Scarf Style

This was my favorite as soon as I started knitting it. It's fun to knit, plus looks beautiful.

Even before K decided on her favorite, I'd decided I had to knit this scarf in Misti Alpaca just because I loved the swatch so much. (And no, I did not twist her arm in the selection process!!)

So that's what I'll be knitting as summer transitions into fall (and hopefully not too far beyond!!)

Don't worry - my niece and SIL both know that these scarves are for them. I am not a stealthy knitter!!

Related posts:
Buying this yarn during NEWS