These Knitted Lace Scarf Patterns Will Make Heads Turn

Lace scarves are beautiful, but the thing is how fast they knit up and how far they extend your yarn. One skein can go such a long way! Openwork knits go oh-so-fast once you’ve internalized the repeats, and blocking them is magic. Watching a lumpy, crumpled strip transform into something long and elegant is the knitting equivalent of sorcery. Here are the best lacy scarves to knit.

1. Lace Scarf

You know what is pretty much the best? Four-row lace, in which two of the rows are just purling. It’s easy to memorize, yet there are so many possible variations — and so many of them look especially impressive. You get all the credit of completing a really difficult-looking project, with none of the actual difficulty. Win!

2. Skinny Leaves Scarf

This is a lovely, well-thought-out pattern that results in a long, skinny scarf that’s different at each end. Light and airy, this scarf makes use of the deservedly popular leaf motif. The leaf pattern changes up in the middle for another classic — fir cone — and then goes back to its original motif.

3. Colliding Stars Scarf

Lace can be really playful when you knit it with relatively heavy yarn. This scarf is knit in worsted weight yarn, and the diagonal eyelets really pop as a result. The holes are bigger, the stripes are bolder and, best of all, it’ll knit up in a flash.

4. Troubador Scarf

Increases and decreases affect the bias of the knitting, and here the bias is played against itself, resulting in a pretty little scarf that defies the bounds of a rectangle. We love the peaked crests that run along the sides!

5. Shetland Mantra Scarf

Feather and Fan is another stitch pattern that’s simpler than it looks with a showier result than you’d think possible. It’s also one of the rare stitches that looks great with pretty much any kind of yarn. Variegated, solid, tonal — it can handle them all. In a lace weight yarn, this stitch creates a light, flexible fabric that can be worn throughout the year.

6. Lacy Scarf

This scarf is the perfect project for gift knitting. Cute, compact and quick, you’ll make it in no time, and it’s a great choice for stash busting! The lace in this pattern demonstrates how lace can sometimes resemble cabling by using knit and purl fields with yarn over increases. The stacked V’s created by the lace pattern remind me of traditional quilt block shapes.

7. Antelope Island Scarf

If you feel like you’ve already mastered simple lace patterns, what’s more fun than a sampler? The Antelope Island Scarf pattern transitions from one lace motif to another, edged with beautiful lacy waves. It only takes 350 yards of fingering weight yarn, too, so that stashed sock yarn is a great choice!