Pattern Scout
Going Up: Escalator Scarf
Greetings, knitter friends. This week Ann and I have the pleasure of showing you each of the projects Erika Knight has designed for MDK Field Guide No. 20: Atlas.
For a sense of who Erika Knight is and what she is up to in her designs for knitters, we invite you to listen in on the recording of our zoom conversation with Erika and her daughter Arabella Harris last Friday.
Erika Knight has been one of the guiding lights of our knitting lives. The designs themselves make a powerful case for the touchstone that knitting and knitwear can be for us, but to hear Erika expand on this theme is powerful.
We kick off our tour of Erika’s designs for Field Guide No. 20 with the magnificent Escalator Scarf.
It’s a good thing that a knitting pattern can be knit by infinite numbers of knitters—otherwise we two would be fighting over who gets to knit it.
The Escalator Scarf has everything.
An asymmetric ribbed edge, to which we add fringe (or don’t add fringe) later. (You can guess which way we lean on this question: pro-fringe!)
An original and unexpected cable. Its rushing lines burst with energy, reminding us of transport maps, high-speed trains, and … escalators. If you take a peep at the chart for this cable on page 17 of the Field Guide, you’ll see that it’s surprisingly straightforward. Attention is required, but the cable twists themselves are easy, and there are plenty of places to rest in each repeat of the chart.
A nod to punk esthetics in the form of purposely dropped stitches within the cable motif. Thanks to the fluffitude of the yarn, these dropped stitches read more like an interesting, almost woven texture than a run in your tights. (Although runs in tights can be cool, too. Yes, we came up in the 1980s.)
Epic scale. The Escalator Scarf finishes at nearly 9 feet long. It makes a dramatic, enveloping statement of pure style.
This project will allow you to experience our new 100% Rambouillet yarn, Atlas, and its lush, distinctive way with cables.
The photography sample is in Barn Red. Ann is already well into making her own Escalator Scarf in Tutu. Kay needs to phone a friend to help choose her color, but she has her eye on Lapis, for a swath of brilliant blue worthy of Matisse.
Welcome to the world, Escalator Scarf—we are thrilled to see you.
You sold me at 9 feet, that’s a runway scarf!
I’m in love with this scarf. I might use Wintergreen (but I’m undecided too!) Love the asymmetric edges.
Love the runs in the cables. The asymmetric end is very attention grabbing. I think I would subtle it up, but keep it somehow – keep the ribbing the same but only add fringe to half… Knit as knit but add fringe on the shart part to the length of the long part, leave the long section with no fringe…
I’m even considering whether there are existing scarves in my life that need a boost by having different fringes… Short black across 3/4, then long black…
It gets me thinking, is all I’m saying.
Atlas looks awesome, maybe Peat and Truffle??? I am falling in love again…
Love the scarf, love the colour!
That red! That scarf!! loooove it.
Yaaaaa no way I could do that …. So pretty though
How do you get the pattern