Yarn Tasting Scarf

A fun pattern to use mini skeins of yarn.

The Yarn Tasting Scarf is a pattern for a long scarf with a crescent shape. A crescent shape is achieved using several short rows sections between straight parts of the scarf.

This is a great pattern to play with your yarn. You can use small pieces of leftover yarn for contrast sections. Choose your main color and then find up to 13 different coordinated colors with different types of fibers and textures between fingering and light worsted weight. You can choose 13 contrast colors/fibers/textures, or you can choose fewer colors and repeat some of them.

Inspiration and Yarn

Every September we have a Charlotte Area Yarn Crawl organized by several local yarn stores. It is a great event to support the stores, discover new stores (from time to time some stores are closing, others are opening), see some demos, or attend classes and win some prizes.

A couple of years ago I yarn crawled and get yarn from different stores. Here’s a picture of some of the yarns from this haul.

I didn’t have any project in mind at this point and chose the yarn to try a new texture or just by the color of the yarn. That is how I got in my possession a beautiful skein of Studio Sox yarn by The Fibre Studio at yarns to dye for in colorway Boho Chic (upper left in the picture).

The colors are gorgeous! But if you have already worked with variegated yarn, you may know how sometimes it’s difficult to find the right pattern for the multicolored yarn. At some point, I wound the yarn and tried several stitches, but no exact idea came to my mind, so I put the yarn back into my stash.

For the next year, I went on the yarn crawl again, and at The Fibre Studio, I found a super cute set of 13 tiny skeins.

Each skein represents a yarn type that the shop offers. Great way to explore different fibers, weights, and twists of the yarn. And right away, an idea popped into my head that I need to combine the Studio Sox skein and this set of tiny skeins into one project.

Construction

The idea of the scarf started to form. Each of the tiny skeins has only 10 yards. And I wanted to make some kind of stripes with them. But if we go with a normal type of stripes, there will be a gap between the main color and you need to carry the yarn somehow, or you need to break the yarn. To avoid this, I decided to go with the short row sections for the tiny skeins part. And on the side where you’ll be switching between yarns, you’ll have only 2 rows jump, which makes changing the yarn almost invisible.

Stitch pattern

For the main color part (made with 1 skein of fingering yarn), I chose the stitch pattern that is reversible and has a little texture. And to make the knitting of straight sections less boring, I made them different lengths.

The short row sections of contrast yarn are made with garter stitch.

The pattern has fully written instructions and charts for the stitch pattern.

Yarn usage

Because this is the project that uses 1 skein of the main color, I wanted to use the yarn up to the max, without any leftovers. The pattern gives you directions on how and where to pay attention to the yarn usage and how to correct your knitting to stay in 1 skein yardage.

What to do if you don't have a set of mini skeins

I’m totally aware that not everyone will have access to the set of the tiny skeins, and many would be substituting them with the yarn they have. And I gave in the pattern an option, how you can use only 4 different contrast colors instead of a total of 13. The second sample (in purple and blue) was made with four contrast colors (different types of yarns and colors) and one main color in MadelineTosh Twist Light.

More options to explore

The second option, which you can change in the pattern, is for the length of the main color sections. You can totally make them the same and not change the number of rows for the main sections.

I would like to give you a starting point with this pattern, and you can make the project the way you would like. This is definitely a great pattern to use your leftover yarn for all these contrasting colors sections.

I would love to see what color combination and texture of the yarn you'll choose for your project. Maybe you’ll choose a solid main color and many variegated colors? Or you’ll change the total number of sections? I’ll keep an eye on the projects on Ravelry to see all your variations.

Size: one size, but customizable

Sample finished size 8.5” (21.5 cm) wide and 7’ (213 cm) long

What do you need to make the scarf

Needles: size US 6 (4 mm) straight or circular, at least 8” (20 cm) long.

Yarn: One 100 g skein of fingering weight yarn 440 yds (400 m) for the main color and

13 x 10 yds (9 m) or a total of 130 yds (117 m) for contrast colors in different yarn weights.

Notions: markers and tapestry needle

Skills needed to make the scarf

You’ll need to know how to knit and purl, do simple increases/decreases, and do short rows. The pattern is written for German short rows, but you can substitute.

Where to find the pattern Yarn Tasting Scarf

The pattern is available for purchase on Ravelry or Payhip.

Yarn Tasting Scarf on Ravelry

Yarn Tasting Scarf on PayHip

Please, if you’re sharing your finished projects on social media, use hashtags #YarnTastingScarf and tag me @natalia_yarncraft