Snowchaser uses stitches slipped with the yarn in front to create a subtle texture that is pleasing on both sides of the fabric. You work a garter stitch selvedge at each end, along which you add an attached I-cord edging once the main body of the scarf is finished.

This pattern uses knit, purl, and slipped stitches, with the pattern worked on right side rows only. The stitch pattern is both charted and written, and includes instructions on adjusting for different lengths and gauges.

I designed Snowchaser in O-Wool Local, a rustic-looking singles yarn made from 50% New Jersey & Pennsylvania-raised alpaca and 50% certified organic merino wool, processed for O-Wool in the northeastern USA. I love the way that Local’s texture works with the strands from the slipped stitches and the stockinette background in this scarf, and how all that alpaca makes for a warm, drapey fabric that you just want to wrap around you.

If you’re substituting yarns for this project, here’s what the pattern’s ‘About the yarn’ section has to say:

O-Wool Local is a loosely spun singles yarn with lots of drape from both the structure and the alpaca content. It’s spun with a ‘Z’ twist, so if you knit English style (throwing), as I do, the yarn opens up a bit as you knit. (Most plied knitting yarn is plied with an ‘S’ twist.) The resulting fabric is soft, light, and drapey. This stitch pattern works with a range of yarns (and didn’t work with a few that surprised me), so if you’re using a different yarn for your project, look for a worsted weight yarn that gives you a fabric you like in the stitch pattern. Slipped stitch patterns can change gauge and appearance quite a bit with blocking, so it’s worth taking the time to block your swatch before deciding.

Snowchaser is $5.50 USD and comes in two sizes: Medium (10.5in/26.5cm wide x 72in/180cm long) and Long (10.5in/26.5cm wide x 94in/239cm long), which is the size of the sample. You can make either size with 2 skeins of Local in each colour, or 382 yds/349m for Medium, 453 yds/414m for Long in worsted weight yarn in each colour. For a full materials list and to buy the pattern, click here to see the Ravelry page (no membership necessary), or click here to buy the pattern now.

Once again, I must thank Gale Zucker for taking such gorgeous photos, and Josephine Ankarah for being such a fantastic model. I also want to thank Kate Vanover and Steph Boardman for their patience and attention to detail in tech editing the pattern. For various reasons, I’ve moved away from pattern testing and started using two tech editors instead. Kate (who’s been with me pretty much from the start) and Steph (who I started working with on Meltwater) do such quality work that I feel confident in continuing to do patterns this way, at least for accessories, and for that I am most grateful.

All images ©Gale Zucker 2016, except the header photo, which is by Nusha Elliott.