Kate's Tube Scarf knitting pattern

Shoshanna Gabriel is one of the twelve authors participating with me in the Christian Contemporary Romance anthology, Save the Date, which releases September 15. Shoshanna’s novella in the anthology is titled Countdown to Her Cowboy’s Christmas Wedding.

In celebration, I wrote a knitting pattern for the cozy tube scarf used by Shoshanna’s heroine, Kate!

Tomorrow I’ll post an excerpt of one of Shoshanna’s other books, The Rancher’s Convenient Pregnant Bride.

This is a soft, squishy scarf in a subtle lace pattern, knitted in fingering weight yarn, in a heathered brown-red colorway and also a multi-colorway in orange, burnt umber, and brown.

However, the color possibilities are endless! This is a great way to use one skein of a lovely hand-painted sock yarn, and when paired with a complimentary solid color yarn, it results in a thicker, longer scarf than you would be able to make with only one skein of yarn.

The scarf is knit flat and then seamed up the side to create an open-ended tube, which makes it extremely warm despite the airiness of the lace pattern.

The lace pattern is not as open as normal lace patterns. It forms little waves running up the length of the scarf with tiny eyelets in between.

The pattern is taken from pattern No. 27 - Comforter for a Gentleman, from The Lady’s Assistant, 1st edition by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, published in 1840, page 79. You can download a .pdf scan of the original book at Archive.org.

The original pattern is only for one type of yarn, but I have written this pattern for two types. The original pattern called for “dark brown four-ply fleecy” and I had no idea what weight yarn that was, but the needle size was US 3 (3.25 mm). I have altered the pattern to use fingering weight yarn and a smaller needle.

NOTES ABOUT THE ORIGINAL PATTERN:
— The original pattern has a few errors, although some of them may simply be the non-standardized way of writing patterns which was the norm back in that time period.
— I’m pretty sure there is an error in the cast on. Cast on either 110 or 107 sts, not 108.
— Rows 1, 2, 4: I think the O in the original pattern means to move the yarn forward before slipping the last stitch, not YO, then slip one stitch. Otherwise it would add a stitch on every one of these rows.
— Rows 2 and 4: Rather than knitting, I purled the “plain” stitches on these rows, and slipped the one slip stitch with the yarn held in front.

While I knit it flat, I also adjusted this pattern for working in the round, if you prefer.

Because of all the changes I made, I decided to blog this as a different pattern from the original.

Yarn:
Knit Picks Palette, (100% Peruvian Highland Wool, 231 yards/50 grams, fingering weight) Stellar Heather colorway, 2 balls (I actually used less than 2 balls but more than one ball)

Unknown hand-painted sock yarn (I’m really frustrated that I had lost the label for this yarn! I think I bought it from a yarn shop and they wound it into a ball for me, and then in the process of shifting my yarn from bin to bin over the years, I lost the label. The skein had about 400 yards, enough for a pair of socks.)

Needles:
US 1 (2.25 mm)

Dimensions:
55” long, 7” wide open ended tube

Gauge:
8.5 stitches and 11.5 rows per inch in stockinette stitch using Knit Picks Palette and US 1 needles.
I tried figuring out the gauge in the lace pattern but it was so difficult that my eyes were crossing and I got a headache. Regardless, it doesn’t matter quite so much, because you can just knit until you run out of one yarn or the other, or until the scarf is the length you want.

NOTES:
— The pattern calls for casting on 110 stitches, but if you want to change that, you will want to cast on a multiple of 6 stitches + 2 for edge stitches, and insert a stitch marker at the halfway point in the round for switching colors. If you decide to knit this in the round, you will probably only do one color (or, at least, one color per row). You’ll want to cast on a multiple of 3 stitches and you can eliminate the 2 edge stitches.
— You will be switching colors halfway across each row in the manner of intarsia knitting. When switching colors, refer to this article to show you how to interlock the two yarn strands so there isn’t a gaping hole where the colors meet.

Pattern:

Loosely cast on 110 stitches using Palette. (I used Norwegian long-tail cast on with two needles held together.) Insert stitch marker at the halfway point in the round for switching colors.

Start pattern below, starting with Palette until the halfway point, then attach the new color and continue the rest of the row with the second color. From that point on, switch the colors at the halfway point using the intarsia method of interlocking strands.

Lace pattern (knitted flat):
NOTE: On rows 2 and 4, when you slip 1, you will be slipping the YO from the previous row, which might partially cover the stitch before it, which you purl, so be careful.
Row 1: Kb, (YO, slip 1, k2tog) until halfway marker, switch colors, (YO, slip 1, k2tog) until last stitch, move yarn forward, slip last stitch.
Row 2: kb, (purl 2, slip 1 with the yarn held in front) until halfway marker, switch colors, (purl 2, slip 1) until last stitch, move yarn forward, slip last stitch.
Row 3: Kb, (k2tog, YO, slip 1) until halfway marker, switch colors, (k2tog, YO, slip 1) until last stitch, knit last stitch.
Row 4: Kb, (purl 1, slip 1 with the yarn held in front, purl 1) until halfway marker, switch colors, (purl 1, slip 1 with the yarn held in front, purl 1) until last stitch, move yarn forward, slip last stitch.

Kb = knit through the back loop
k2tog = knit two together
slip 1 = slip stitch as if to purl (you can slip the stitch as if to knit for a slightly different look to the pattern)
YO = yarn over

Continue in pattern until you run out of one of the yarns or the scarf is the length you desire. I knit until I ran out of the orange-brown sock yarn.

Bind off using Palette.

Finishing: Sew up the scarf lengthwise (I used crochet slip stitch to join the two sides). Block scarf (I blocked it with the color border in the middle of the scarf). Weave in ends.

Knitting in the round:

You can definitely do this pattern in the round, although when I tried it with only one colorway, there was a huge gap at the start of each new round that I couldn’t tighten no matter what I tried.

I had been considering two colorways, so I frogged and decided to do this knitted flat, then seamed lengthwise.

If you do this in the round, here’s the pattern:
Round 1: YO, sl1, k2tog
Round 2: sl1, k2
Round 3: k2tog, YO, sl1
Round 4: k1, sl1, k1

k = knit
YO = yarn over
sl1 = slip one stitch
k2tog = knit two together

The scarf is featured in Shoshanna’s novella, Countdown to Her Cowboy’s Christmas Wedding. She gave me permission to post the short excerpt where the scarf appears!

Excerpt:

Kate would give anything to still have that glimmer of hope she might run into her mom hanging out late at night on the couch while Kate was on her way to the kitchen.

She stopped by the entryway coat closet and stood on her tippy-toes to grab her mom’s scarf from the top shelf. The scarf was a burnt-orange-and-brown motley mix of wool yarn knit in a warm tube. She covered her hair with it, wearing it like a hood. It made her warm and cozy, and she added a log to the woodstove before padding barefoot back to her room.

Her mother had knit that scarf and had worn it every winter for years. It was beautiful and perfect for cold winter days, but Kate found herself reluctant to take it out of the house since it had belonged to her mother. What if she lost it somewhere? She’d never forgive herself. Instead, she sometimes brought it to bed, like a cozy baby blanket, to comfort her. When her mother had first died, the scarf never left Kate’s bed. Now, many years later, the scarf lived in the coat closet, where it belonged.

Kate still knew it was there and drew comfort from it, knowing how much love her mother infused into everything she knitted. The scarf was a physical embodiment of that love—a warm hug from her mother in heaven.

“What do you think, Mom?” she whispered.

She knew the answer in her heart. Her mother had always loved Jay, and she’dentrusted him with her daughter’s safety from the moment Jay was handed his drivers’ license first and picked Kate up in his father’s pickup.Maybe even before that, when Mom had agreedto let Jay take Kate out fishing on the lake or hiking in the woods.

If her mom were alive, she’d be thrilled about their engagement. She’d already be talking about grandchildren. No question.

Copyright 2021 Shoshanna Gabriel

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Camy’s knitting patterns inspired by the novellas in Save the Date:
— Ashlyn's Yoga Bag knitting pattern w/ @KnitPicks Dishie
— Cleo’s Drawstring Purse knitting pattern w/ @KnitPicks CotLin
— Kate’s Tube Scarf knitting pattern
— April’s Newsboy Hat knitting pattern w/ @KnitPicks Dishie

Get 12 novellas in Save the Date, a Christian Contemporary Romance anthology. Preorder now for only 99 cents! Releases September 15th.