Rosa Scarf

Andrea with her back to the camera wearing Rosa wrapped around a few times and the lace panel spread out.

The Story

In the knitting pattern design world, there are a lot of ways to get our work out to knitters. Most of my designs are completely created by me, from knitting the samples to coordinating the photography, to laying out the pattern document and uploading the pdf file to my website and Ravelry.

Sometimes, though, I collaborate with other companies. Usually they provide yarn, photography, pattern layout, and distribution in exchange for a fee and/or royalties. It’s really important to me, though, that I’ll eventually get back my rights to publish the design myself. Re-publishing a design is great because it allows me to really explore my vision and present it in a new, creative way. I also really love my own pattern layout and the direct relationship I have with my knitters. And it’s a great way to make my business more sustainable by allowing me to keep getting income from work I’ve invested a lot in.

That’s the story with Rosa. It was originally published in collaboration with Amano in their truly luxurious Puyu silk and alpaca blend yarn. I still really love that yarn for this design, so if you want a scarf that incredibly soft, light, and a bit fluffy, I encourage you to check out Puyu!

But I also wanted to try Rosa out in something a bit different. Quince and Co. Puffin is a singles super bulky wool that gives extra body, gorgeous stitch definition, and a different texture. Each stitch is really round and distinct in a way that I think is perfect for lace and brioche. Compared to a lot of soft super bulky wool options it’s also really affordable — you can make Rosa with four skeins of Puffin for about $55 USD.

The Details

Rosa starts with knitting both lace ends. The first one is set aside on waste yarn before working the second one. Then you can knit up all the yarn you’ve got (aside from a tail for grafting) in brioche before grafting that set-aside lace end to the brioche scarf. The lace pattern is quick and simple, but has a big impact because of that huge yarn, and the brioche is a great intro if you’re new to the technique. Here’s a video of me working brioche with yarn held in both my left and right hands.

Yarn Choice

The Quince & Co. Puffin, a super bulky 100% wool singles yarn, shown in these photos comes in tons of beautiful colours and gives a really lovely matte look with defined stitches.

Check out my Ravelry page for images of the original sample in Amano Puyu. It’s very light because of the fascinating construction. It’s a tube of silk with alpaca blown into it using cool new technology. You can read more about Puyu in my Swatch Project.

One of my testers also went the fluffy route but used Knit Picks Wonderfluff held double. It took her about 5 and a half skeins to make her scarf and it looks so cozy!

I haven’t tried it, but I’d love to see this in Malabrigo Rasta. Even though it’s also a super bulky singles like Puffin, it’s really smooth and has a bit of shine. The colours are also really different, with semi-solid and variegated options. I think that because it’s so smooth, it would have more drape and less body than Puffin.