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Linen Stitch

One of my WIPs is a beautiful scarf from Churchmouse and Teas called the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf.    Koigu refers to the brand of yarn used to knit this scarf.  I didn't use this brand and needed help in making the selection. But let's start by talking about the stitch first.


Someone else's version of the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf

The linen stitch is a simple stitch to knit that offers dramatic impact.  Click this video to get a close look at how easy it is to do. It includes knitting, purling, slipping stitches and bringing yarn to the front or back of the work.  Moving the yarn forward and backward adds the tiny horizontal bars you can see above.  The video shows the woven look the linen stitch creates even more clearly.  And the look is impressive in a single colour.


My combination of colours
However, if you change colours every few rows, the look is even more dramatic.   See above in my sample.  The slip stitch will place one colour into the next row where a different colour is being knitted or purled.  And if the colours are carefully selected the combinations can be very pleasing.  I bought my yarn at my LYS, Black Sheep Yarns, and the product purchased was Cascade Yarn Heritage Paints,  a sock yarn.  Luckily for me, Helen, the shop owner, has a keen eye for colour combinations and selected my yarn.  (I'm working on this ability but have not yet perfected it.)  See the three colours above.  One of the advantages of the Cascade Yarn is the variegation include speckles in addition to the different colours which adds even more interest to the overall look.



A close-up of my linen stitch scarf.  Mike, the cat, has inspected it as you can see.

So go ahead, scour your stash to see if you have any complementary sets of yarn that might work for a linen stitch scarf and check out Churchmouse and Tea's website to get the pattern.  I am sure your colour sense will help you create something simply wonderful.



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