I didn’t think that it would take me to the end of August to actually get to talk about this project. The Oriito Scarf was worked and completed at the beginning of the year and it was a real pleasure to work with it.
There is a good reason why it took so long to present it. Once I finished it I showed it to Simone (fraukuhn) and she liked it so much that we collectively decided to make this project into a knitting design. Hence the process to rework the whole piece from scratch started, and that took a long time. I had to find the right materials, decipher the original stitch pattern and work two different samples. And all that while working a full time job and helping out at the yarn shop. Needless to say it has been a busy year!
So let’s take a look at the original Oriito Scarf. My ‘base’ was a simple long rectangular scarf. This piece was worked with two yarns, in a simple colored linen stitch. The main color yarn is a green Aran weight wool yarn in what looks like merino. The contrast color yarn is an Aran weight yarn, probably a wool blend, that shifts from one color to another in a subtle and beautiful way.
I really liked the color gradiation and wanted to keep this feature highlighted in whatever way I re-worked this piece. Therefore, embroidery did not seem like a wise choice. It would hide the original texture and crowd the surface too much. That’s why I focused on folding and pleating. I tried a few configurations. The length of the piece of course limited me to certain options. After a few tries I ended up with something I really liked: the final shape of the Oriito scarf.
Unfortunately I cannot show in detail here how I achieved it, because this process is now part of my two most recent pattern publications: Oriito Aran and Oriito Sport. In each pattern I explain the step-by-step process with a photo tutorial.
All I can say is that the process is much simpler than it looks. It can be applied to almost every existing rectangular scarf, provided that the scarf is wide and long enough.
And the result is a dense, warm, compact scarf. I am looking forward to cooler days to get to enjoy it! 🙂
