Atlantic Scarf

This scarf was inspired by a conversation I had recently with an old friend. Not long after we spoke, the design popped into my head and it became a drop-everything-and-work-on-nothing-else until it was finished sort of project.

The cable I saw in my head didn't exist in any pattern book I could find, so I ended up creating it myself. It has two columns on either side of busy twisted cables. Every so often a part of each cable branches off and intertwines in the center before being pulled back in the direction it came from.


After some thought, I decided it should be done in reversible cable (so that it could be looked at from both sides and all angles), but after a weekend of failed attempts I gave up. The only way to recreate the image in my head was to make it one sided. Better to be true to my original vision than attempt to turn it into something it didn't want to be.


I had planned to make the scarf using one of my favorite yarns, Ultra Alpaca, which is a 50/50 blend of alpaca and wool. It comes in many shades of blue, but none of them was quite right. I wandered around Webs and stumbled on Classic Elite's Inca Alpaca in the exact color I wanted.

It's 100% yummy squishy alpaca. The cables do not pop as much as they might with something with a bit more wool to stabilize it, but this scarf is luxuriously soft. Bury your face in it soft. If it was practical and sensible to wear handknit underwear I would want all of mine made with this yarn soft.

The pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry, or you can email me and I'll send you a copy. The cable instructions are both charted and written out depending on which way you prefer to work (I do aim to please everyone...).