2026 brings us flowers, vines, and leaves all done in delicate lace for our year-long sampler challenge. Add in some texture with bobbles, beads, and Nupps and you have a beautiful scarf coming your way.

This year’s lace mystery scarf is an S/K/M (Sort of/Kind of/Maybe) mystery. Instead of receiving a clue each month, you will receive the entire pattern on January 1, 2026. However, to preserve the mystery aspect, there will be no photos of this work-in-progress until November 2026. For those who wish the clues came faster, this is your chance to charge forward. For those who wish for a bit more time on a particularly challenging clue, you can take your time knowing that the next clue is waiting for you when you are ready to tackle it.

The 2026 lace sampler challenge requires beads, bobbles, or Nupps - Knitter’s choice! For a scarf with beads only, you will need 600 yds/549 meters of fingering or lace weight yarn and 642 size 6/0 or 8/0 beads. If you add bobbles or Nupps, you will need 700 yds/640 meters of fingering or lace weight yarn.

Like the idea of a lace challenge, but would prefer something with more repeats? The 2026 Year of Botanical Lace Shawl can help you with that.

A delightful garden of lace is headed your way in 2026. Let’s all join the fun for our yearly lace challenge!