Inspiration
I Made It with Atlas: Checkered Scarf
Why do you knit? A big question, I know! My answer changes depending on the day. But ultimately, knitting has always been about the process for me. Bonus points if I’ve made something I enjoy wearing after I bind off.
Designing my checkered scarf with Modern Daily Knitting’s 100% Rambouillet Atlas, I wanted to create something that would achieve both goals: process and product.
Creating a checkered scarf pattern has been on the tipity top of my to-make list for the longest time. But somehow, I never got around to making it. Another project always got in the way. Then the broad color palette of Atlas inspired me to take the leap.
As I made the scarf, I binge-watched Wednesday on Netflix and Only Murders In The Building on Hulu. My pattern was inspired by many of Wednesday Adams’s outfits, while my color palette was inspired by the blues and greens in Only Murders In The Building.
Once I knew I wanted to create a checkered design, I had a few hurdles to overcome to create my ideal stitching experience. One of the things that I enjoy most about stitching is the ability to zone out while I stitch. I love popping on a good or so-bad-it’s-good movie and getting lost in the rhythm of the stitches.
Unfortunately for me, I fell deeply in love with the Atlas color options. I always find it challenging to zone out when I have to worry about swapping colors every few stitches. There are few things I love more than colorwork, yet even fewer things I dislike more than weaving in a million ends.
Enter: slip stitch colorwork! The first time I discovered that I could create a colorwork pattern without switching colors every few stitches, a whole new world of design opened up to me. This allowed me to only work with one color on each row rather than carrying all of my threads across or having a million balls going simultaneously. It also means that you won’t need to cut your yarn throughout, and you’ll only have to deal with the ends at the beginning and end of your skein. Making it the ideal set up for binge-watching!
I held Atlas double to create this squishy circle scarf. Each color overlaps with two different colors so that one combination fades into another. When planning out your scarf, you will need four colors, two skeins of each color, for a total of eight skeins. I went with Navy, Pebble, Peat, and Pear. Side note: Whisper would make an excellent Pebble replacement!
more of Samantha’s serving suggestions!
Each color gets paired with two others throughout the scarf’s length. So, for example, Navy gets paired with Pebble and Peat. The same color can look drastically different depending on which color it’s stitched next to. In many ways, this scarf became an extension of my swatching process and color experiments.
I loved playing around with color and seeing how I could pull different tones out of the same shade simply by placing it next to a different color. Peat acts as a deep and even partner to Navy but becomes a much bolder choice when placed next to Pear. I want you to have fun with your color choices! This same scarf would take on a completely different vibe if made in Cedar, Natural, Merlot, and Peat. I’m so excited to see the hundreds of ways you can take this same idea.
Blocking is a must and a dream with Atlas. Please don’t report me to the knitting authority but I tend to be a secret anti-blocker, particularly when it comes to items I’m going to wear myself. With that being said, it is so satisfying to block ATLAS and see your project come to life!
I hope that you enjoy the process of making your checkered scarf as much as you’ll enjoy wearing it!
Make It with Atlas
- Checkered Scarf by Samantha Brunson
- 8 skeins of Atlas in the shades of your choice—2 each of 4 colors
- Size US 10 (6mm) needles, swatch to get gauge
- Large eye sewing needle
- Optional: Removable stitch markers for counting your rows.
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Very clever design! You look so cozy, now to pick the colors!
Thank you Samantha for this beautiful design and refreshing change in patterns. My knitting needs a change up and this might be it.
I love this! This may be the pattern that gets me to try color work (which I have studiously avoided). Now the semi hard part – picking colors.
That scarf is extremely cool (and warm I bet)! And I’ve been waiting on tenterhooks for someone to publish a pattern for that crochet vest Wednesday is wearing in the left hand pic – I love it in black and white, but it would be a fun color playground too. My crochet skills aren’t good enough for reverse engineering, although I could probably do it with knitting….
Oh Samantha, you really hit all my favorites: scarf in colorwork, tons of color possibilities, big gauge. Love this like a baby! Also: you wear it so well!
What a great design! I love the mixing & shifting of colors. It looks super cozy!
Thanks for the introduction to Samantha. I signed up got the BobbleClubhouse newsletter.
Congratulations on this great design! It’s so fun to see the colors play together, and imagine more combinations. I know swatching and blocking are the book-end chores of knitting, but blocking has such immediate apparent rewards. I hope this project is the beginning of your conversion to being an inveterate blocker 😉 Of course I did wear a recently finished hat for a week before I blocked it. We were traveling and I needed a warm hat.
The scarf looks like loads of fun but it’s the COAT on these photos that I dream of. It too is knitted yes?
Thank you! It’s not knitted…but now you’ve just added another project to my “to-make” list
Is nobody going to mention the coat? Love the coat and scarf combo and cannot wait to learn this slip-stitch checkerboard magic.
Samantha – this is stunning!!!! Your color combos are so cool; I love this!
Thanks Jen!!!
Thank you so much for the awesome comments everyone! I had so much fun working with ATLAS yarn for this project. I can’t wait to see how everyone will make this their own. ❤️
What does the wrong side look like? It almost looks like you’ve knit a tube to avoid the wrong side showing but based on the instructions, it looks like it’s knit flat.
Hey! Yes, this is worked flat. So you will see the floats on the wrong side. I’ve added a photo of the back to the Ravelry page. I think the back looks almost like a waffle pattern and could be a design all on it’s own!
I love the back side of colorwork!
I’ve avoided color work like the plague. This may help me get over the hump!
What a fun scarf pattern–I love the color work options you’ve given. But I have to ask: Are you related to Quinta? I adore Abbott Elementary and am so excited for its success.
Keep functioning ,remarkable job!