Is Scarf Yarn the new Feathers?

There are several kinds of knitters. There are those who only tackle intricate designs, such as lace shawls, those who knit for themselves and family (I call these people jobbing knitters) and there are others who knit purely for fun. Obviously there is no one definition of a knitter, but these are 3 types that spring to mind.

There are also many knitters who consider those who knit with “novelty” yarns to be unworthy of the title. This is so unfair! I remember when I worked in a public library many years ago, a librarian who bemoaned the popularity of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, believing they did nothing to enrich the reader. Given the number of reluctant readers who devoured all of the titles, I couldn’t help but disagree.

The parallels between pulp fiction and pulp knitting are many. When the feather or eyelash style of yarn became popular in the 90s, it seemed that everyone was wearing a brightly coloured fluffy scarf, often a different colour each day! Many of them had been made by grandmothers for their adult children, but many were also made by novice knitters who were keen to learn the craft and produce something bright and fashionable for little effort. And so the Novelty Yarn was re-born.

Over the past year, novelty scarf yarns have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Ruffle scarf yarns are filling yarn shop shelves and, if the marketing hype is to be believed, flying off them just as quickly as the shopkeeper can re-stock. Will they maintain the longevity of the feathery scarf? Only time will tell.

There are several varieties of ruffle yarns. There are mesh styles and ribbon styles, to name just two. The technique for knitting or crocheting is similar in both varieties. In normal knitting, the yarn is passed around the needle to make a stitch. With ruffle yarns, only the top of the yarn strip is knitted into, giving the luscious boa effect.

Tips for using ruffle yarn

1  Consider rewinding into a cake.  The mesh can become twisted and takes time to untwist.  If you wind into a cake it is easier to keep reasonably flat.

2  Use straight needles, at least for your first attempt.  I started my first one with circulars and found myself getting tangled every time I started a new row!  I’m not a fan of straight needles, but switching to them helped keep me on track while I was learning how to knit with the yarn.

3  Don’t over-think!  The best thing about ruffle yarn is that you don’t have to be the neatest knitter to make a stunning scarf.  As long as you keep the same number of stitches, you don’t have to be accurate when spacing your stitches.  I wouldn’t be totally lax about it, but if you sometimes grab the 4th instead of the 3rd loop you will never know the difference.
I have placed a small selection of ruffle scarf yarns on my website.  I’d love to hear your comments on knitting and crocheting with these new novelty yarns!