Patty's Knits Abbie Bargello Scarf Knitting Pattern

Patty's Knits Abbie Bargello Scarf

What Is Being Made

The Abbie Bargello Scarf is a knitted accessory featuring a striking bargello color pattern created through the clever use of self-striping yarn. This finished scarf measures 74 inches in length and 9.5 inches in width, making it a generous wrap-style accessory. The design showcases rich texture and controlled color pooling that creates stacked color effects, resulting in a visually dynamic piece that appears far more complex than the construction method suggests.

Techniques Used

This scarf employs several key knitting techniques to achieve its distinctive appearance:

• Intarsia: The primary technique used to create the bargello color effect. The scarf is worked in three separate columns or segments, each managed with its own skein of yarn. This method allows for precise color placement and prevents holes in the fabric when yarns are properly linked.
• Bottom-up construction: The scarf is worked from the cast-on edge upward to the bind-off edge, allowing knitters to see the pattern develop as they progress.
• Seamless, flat construction: The entire scarf is worked flat on straight needles without seaming, creating a clean, finished appearance with no interruptions to the color pattern.

Stitches Used

The Abbie Bargello Scarf uses fundamental knitting stitches accessible to knitters with basic skills:

• Stockinette stitch: The primary stitch used throughout most of the scarf, creating a smooth, classic knit fabric with a gauge of 19 stitches and 24 rows over 4 inches.
• Pattern stitch: Used in specific sections with a gauge of 19 stitches and 22 rows over 4 inches, contributing to the textural variation.
• Cast on and bind off: Required foundational techniques for beginning and finishing the scarf.

Materials and Tools

Yarn: The pattern calls for worsted weight variegated yarn with long color changes, totaling 570 yards. The model was created using Sprightly Yarns Spectrum Worsted by Craftsy in the colorway Keep Coasting, which is a 50% wool and 50% acrylic blend. Three skeins of 150 yards each are required, allowing knitters to select different starting points in the color sequence for each intarsia segment.

Needles and Tools: US 8 (5mm) straight needles are needed to achieve the proper gauge. A size H (5mm) crochet hook is optional and may be used for the cast-on method. Additional materials include three resealable plastic sandwich-size baggies for organizing yarn segments, a permanent marker for labeling, scissors, and a yarn needle for weaving in ends.

Skill Level and Requirements

Rated as an Easy skill level project, the Abbie Bargello Scarf requires only basic knitting competencies: the ability to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. While intarsia experience is noted as helpful, it is not required, making this an excellent introduction to the technique. The pattern emphasizes that after completing an initial four-row foundation, the intarsia technique becomes the focus, with careful attention paid to picking up new yarn from underneath the dropped yarn to link segments and prevent holes in the fabric.

Gauge and Sizing

The pattern specifies a gauge of 19 stitches and 24 rows over 4 inches in stockinette stitch. However, the pattern notes that gauge is not critical for this project, as variations will simply affect yarn requirements and the finished dimensions. Knitters are encouraged to work a gauge swatch, block it, measure it, and then unravel it to reclaim the yarn for the actual project.