Design Inspiration: A Day At The Beach Scarf
Designing Knitting Stitches
So where does inspiration come from? From a sunset, a beautiful field, a work of art . . . a laundry hamper.
Yep, you heard me right. Sometimes inspiration comes from the weirdest places. A little over a year ago, my husband David and I were at an adorable Inn In Woodstock New York, and I just loved the laundry hamper. It was a cool basket with a kind of weird swirley pattern.
Even though I was on deadline at the time for another sweater (more on that hoodie at a later date), I picked up my needles and started playing around to see if I could recreate it. I tried traditional cables, and lace stitches, and finally, I just invented a weird twisted stitch pass over thingy that I quite liked.


Does the stitch look exactly like the basket? Not at all, but that’s not the point. The basket was a jumping off point that made me pick up my needles. I stopped trying to “match” it when I got something on my needles that said “hey, stop, look at me, aren’t I cute?”
Since I loved the way it added a certain structure to a really floopy silk, and the swatch trapped air in a pleasing way, I thought, scarf or shawl??? How bout scawl or sharf. That’s when you can’t quite make up your mind so you design a really wide scarf that can stretch out over your shoulders, or squinch up around your neck. Also, it’s easy to adjust at any length or width because it’s a 4 stitch repeat.
So if you want to make one for yourself,
Here ya go (click on the picture or name for more info, or the “buy now” to . . . well, you know)