This beautiful scarf was on my needles for almost a year because I ran out of the Malabrigo Lace yarn in Mariposa colorway. I received another ball via Internet order, but it was SO much darker than the first ball. I was afraid to continue, but since I only had a few more inches to knit, I decided that nobody but me would notice. It’s now done, and I’m so glad that I can now start wearing it - that is, if we ever get some cooler weather here in the SF Bay Area… I have enough left to knit a matching hat and fingerless mitts.

Love, love, love the colors in this super soft yarn. (Yarn photo is true color.) Scarf is knitted with a strand of each yarn held together. I did not use the pre-beaded yarn suggested in the pattern, but I added some bead bling on the ends. Beads were purchased at Jo-Ann and only attached to bobbles to weigh down the ends of the scarf a bit. I strung 5 beads together at each point and attached them to the scarf with sewing thread. (Bead holes were very tiny.)

The scarf ends are knitted in a version of the classic fishtail stitch which is a repeat of 10 sts. Place markers after each stitch repeat (every 10 sts).

What I did differently:

• Size 4mm/6 US needle instead of size 7

• Cast on only 59 sts instead of 89 because I wanted a narrower (and shorter) scarf.

• Slipped the first stitch of every row purlwise (substituted for stitches on the chart).

• Last stitch of every WRONG side row is a KNIT stitch (rather than purl).

• On each end of the scarf, I did 10 repeats of the chart (fishtail stitch). Then I did the entire remainder of the scarf with repeats of rows 33 and 34. I did not do any 1 x 1 ribbing although that would be advisable for people who cast on the 89 sts as indicated in the pattern. If I knit this again, I’ll do the ribbing and make the scarf a foot or two longer.

• Joined two halves of scarf together with Kitchener stitch rather than the 3-needle bind-off. Without the ribbing, the ends are asymmetrical when they come together. Do not try to align them. Just do the Kitchener seam stitch by stitch. This is another good reason to do the ribbing in the center. That will make the two ends align more easily. And the ribbing won’t make it as thick around the neck.

• Did my bobbles like this:

^(Knit into stitch on left needle as usual, but don’t take it off the needle. Spread your needles apart as far as possible. Yarn-over right needle.) Repeat from ^ one time. Knit into stitch on left needle once again. Transfer all loops from right needle to left and knit into all 5 loops at once. (You may find a crochet hook helpful in transferring the stitch to the right needle although I didn’t find it necessary.) Place this one stitch on the left needle and knit it. One bobble created.

The scarf is knitted in two halves and joined in the middle. Before starting, divide the Malibrigo yarn into two equal size balls. When you finish knitting one of them, it’s time to start the other half. Be sure to leave enough yarn to do the Kitchener stitch join at center.

The beautiful cardigan in the first picture was designed by Jennifer Wood and is called “Kerenza.” I knit that back in 2017 and have worn it a lot.