How to Make a Ruffle Scarf with Mesh Yarn

If you are a regular reader of my blog (I'm hoping there's one or two of you!) or you follow me on Instagram (@itsmariemade) or Facebook, you may have seen the huge bucket of wool I won at a competition at Spotlight. 

There were lots of weird and wonderful yarns in that bucket and I've given myself an unofficial challenge of trying to create something with each of them. Some things I knew as soon as I saw the yarn what I would be able to make. Others, like this ridiculous furry yarn and these mesh and eyelash yarns, I was at a bit of a stalemate. From extensive Google research, it seems as though the only thing people make out of these are either scarves or teddy bears!

For this particular project, I decided to use the mesh yarn, Moda Vera "Catalina" and knit up a scarf. There is pattern on the back of the ball band, but after a few tries, I realised it's actually not that obvious how to knit with this type of yarn, so I thought I would do a photo tutorial showing you. I call these scarves "Ruffle Scarf" because I can't think of any other name for them! I hope you find this useful. 

It's a very quick knit once you get the hang of it. Fast progress and not as tricky as you might think. 

You will need

1 or 2 balls of mesh/honeycomb yarn
Straight needles (any size will work, I have used 5mm and 7mm)
Scissors
Tapestry needle and threads for sewing in ends
*Beads or decorations to finish
(*Optional)

Step One:  

Take the ball band off and find the end of your yarn. It might be tied together with extra pieces of yarn, and it's helpful to remove these prior to starting knitting. 

Step Two:

Finding the end of the yarn that you are working with, spread it out slightly so that the weave is open and you have some holes to work with. 

Step Three:

Working with your needle in your RIGHT hand and the end of the yarn facing LEFT, weave your needle into a couple of loops of the yarn. This will be your first cast-on stitch. 

Step Four: 

Continue as above until you have the desired number of stitches on your need. Four to six stitches works well. (The more stitches, the wider your scarf).

Step Five:

You're now ready to knit. Switch the needle to your left hand, and gather some of the yarn from the ball into your right hand. 

Step Six:

Now you will begin working the body of your scarf. With the RIGHT needle, insert your needle into the first "stitch" on the LEFT needle as if you were to knit a stitch as usual. 

With your RIGHT hand, gather some of the yarn from the yarn ball, find a couple of loops (as you did for casting on) and put these loops onto the RIGHT needle, then slip the LEFT needle up and over as for a regular knit stitch. (As soon as you have done the first stitch, it will make sense!) 

Step Seven:

Continuing knitting as above, turning at the end of end row and knitting again, as if you are working in Garter stitch (knit every row). After you've knit 3 or 4 rows, you should start to see the ruffle emerging. Carry on until you've got to the last few inches of yarn at the end of the ball. Cast off in the normal way, whereby you knit the first stitch, knit the 2nd stitch and then put the first stitch over the 2nd, until you have one stitch left. Pull the remaining yarn through the last stitch and then trim the remaining yarn and hand sew to secure. 

Now if you want to, you can add some embellishment like beads. In the first scarf I made, I tied in some purple glass beads into the end sections of the scarf. It was pretty fiddly to do this to be honest, so I think it looks ok without beads. 

I hope this inspires you to try something different with your crafting! I'm also trying to finish off a few other bits and pieces to complete Just Create June!