Ripples are common in both biological systems and human clothes. Knitters have long exploited the ability of fabric to curl out of plane, by either removing or adding stitches to the material as it is created. This pattern was presented as a companion to a piece in the scientific journal Patterns. That piece describes two different ways of creating ripples in knitted fabric, and discusses some of the mathematical and physical perspective on how these ripples can arise.

A similar scarf produced by the other mechanism, End-to-End Rippled Scarf, was designed by Mary Elting and is also available on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/end-to-end-rippl...