Knit a Scarf with a Dragon’s Tail

The Dragon’s Tale scarf from Nim Teasdale is just so much fun I had to share it. It’s a crescent-shaped scarf with lace detailing along one side to look like scales, and the tips of the scarf are made to look like the dragon’s head and tail, respectively. Complete with safety eyes, though of course you could use buttons or even just embroider French knots or x shapes if you’d rather.

The head is shaped with cables, and both the cables and the lace are charted, but the full pattern is also written out if you prefer to work that way. There’s just one increase and one decrease in each row of the border, so it’s a pretty simple introduction to lace knitting if you haven’t tried it before. The edge also has an integrated I-cord border to give it more definition.

The head can be worked flat or in the round if you want to give it a little more realistic of a look.

And if you don’t want to use the head and tail at all, you can just make a pretty scarf with a wave and some dragon scales if you’d rather.

Both the width and the length of the pattern are adjustable, and it calls for DK weight yarn but you could also use worsted if you have some handy.

This pattern was originally released in 2014 and you can find the old pattern with 250 projects to show you what it looks like in all kinds of yarns on Ravelry. (There’s a really great rainbow version in there, for example.)

The new pattern has updated charts and is also available on Ravelry. There’s also a shawl version if you’d rather make it bigger and more reminiscent of dargon wings.

I do love the creativity of knitters and am glad this one was refreshed so it got on my radar this time around!

[Photo: Nim Teasdale]

Knitting and travel are two hobbies that are highly compatible. Travel often involves waiting or time spent on planes, trains, boats, etc., time that can easily be filled by knitting, a portable and productive craft you can do most anywhere (and yes, you can take your knitting on a plane most of the time).

Krista Ann combines knitting and traveling regularly and ended up visiting every continent in 2022 with her knitting needles along for the ride. The Wandering Knitter explores travel, knitting and learning new knitting skills no matter where you are.

This isn’t a book for beginners, but if you’ve wanted to learn techniques like brioche, cables, lace, colorwork, mitered squares and short rows, there’s a set of more beginner level patterns followed by ones that are bigger, more detailed or required a little more skill. For example a brioche washcloth is the beginner pattern, while a brioche sweater (with unexplained exceptionally long sleeves) is the stepped up project. A basic mesh lace scarf becomes a more complex lace kerchief. A giant mitered square cowl graduates to a mitered square tote bag.

Interspersed among the patterns are essays about traveling to different continents and what she saw there. There are also tips for traveling with your knitting and tips for reading charts, but no tutorials for knitting skills (other than a written explanation of how mosaic knitting works).

Some of the projects would be useful to have when traveling, such as fingerless gloves, a warm headband or a colorwork hat. The travel angle is an interesting hook for a book, but I would have enjoyed essays more about specific incidents or shopping for yarn in a different country or something more than the general essays about things she’s liked and places she’d like to go back to.

Still, if you’re looking for a skill building book that doesn’t focus on the basics but gives you some wearable, attractive accessories, this book is a good one to check out. Just maybe make the sleeves shorter if you knit the sweater.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2026 by Quarry Books. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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