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]

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

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