Striped Asymmetrical Scarf

Our Asymmetrical Scarf pattern is one of our most downloaded free patterns. 

The scarf begins with 3 stitches and after an initial set-up you repeat the same 2 rows, creating a long triangle shape... more scarf like than shawl and you can wear it in lots of different ways.

wrapped and tied

folded in half with the loose ends pulled through

wrapped and tied twice

Over the years I've knitted 4 different versions for the shop.

The original one is knitted in a hand dyed 4ply.

I did another 4ply version using 10 mini balls of Opal 4ply sock yarn. It's packed with colour and is a great example of what you can do with scrappy leftovers of sock yarn.

The next version was in heavier DK yarn. It uses 4 colours, one ball knitted one after another. I called it the Colour Block Scarf.

The last version was in a mohair silk laceweight. This one is super light (it weighs less than 50g) with a fluffy halo.

One common feature of these scarves is that they are all knitted in garter stitch (knit every row) and I really fancied doing one in stocking stitch (knit one row, purl one row).

When putting together our Alpaca Collection kits (3 balls of Rowan Alpaca Classic and 2 free patterns) I saw the perfect excuse to make a new asymmetrical sample. This one combining the attributes of the previous samples - using a thicker yarn, having a fluffy halo and with stripes.

Rowan Alpaca Classic is a DK thickness yarn. It has a cotton core with blown alpaca fibres giving it a fluffy halo. And it is so light that each 25g ball as 120m. 

For this Striped Asymmetrical Scarf I included a 1 stitch slip stitch edge which gives the edges a cleaner finish.

I also used an i-cord cast off which gives a rolled edge - a lovely finish to stocking stitch (last seen on our Striped Cowl). You can see an i-cord cast off tutorial here on Andrea Rangel's website. It's very simple to do.

To stop the scarf shape curling, so it's a straight edged asymmetrical triangle and not curling like a banana, I added a YO at the beginning of the every right side row. When you come to this YO on the wrong side row you simply let it drop off you needle. Thus, you get a little bit more stretch on your edge.

I couldn't resist a row of eyelets when I started the third colour. I liked the idea of colours peeping through when the scarf is worn.

Like many of our free shop patterns this is a great project for TV, travel, social knitting. It had a little bit more 'technique' with the stripes, extra YO, the YO row and i-cord cast off but it's basically the same two rows repeated over and over.

I've written up the Striped Asymmetrical Scarf pattern which you can download for free here. It's also available in the Alpaca Collection kit.

In each kit you'll also get a copy of the Alpaca Scarf pattern and Alpaca Cowl pattern.

You can choose which accessory you want to make. Just add needles.

Both the Striped Asymmetrical Scarf and the Alpaca Scarf use a 4.5mm circular needle (at least 80cm long).

And if you want to knit the Cowl you will need 4mm x 60cm circular needle.

If you buy a kit you get 10% off compared to buying the yarn separately.