Sophie Scarf: First finished project of 2026

Quick project details
Cast on: 6 January
Bind off: 8 January
Yarn: sport weight merino mystery stash yarn held together with Voilette metallic mohair from 'La Droguerie' shop in Paris, in the colourway 'Princesse en Tutu'.
Needles: 3.5mm Chiaogoo Interchangeable knitting needles on a 35cm cable
Pattern: Sophie Scarf by Petite Knit

Now, if you're reading this after reading my January Intentions post, you're probably wondering why the Mistake Rib scarf isn't my first finished project. I did specifically say that I was going to work on it first to remind myself about the basics of knitting. And, I actually did start that one first. But, knitting is hard and attention spans are nebulous. I'll talk about the roller coaster of that scarf in it's own post when it's finished. It's nearly there, I promise.

I started working on the Sophie Scarf on 6 January. It was our first full day with our new cat, Tom, in the house and that required a lot of sitting in one room, supervising him, and occasionally scooping him up for cuddles. It was also absolutely freezing cold, our pellet stove was still broken, and in order to keep the house warm I needed to manage the fire. It was a perfect day to camp out on the couch and start a new knitting project.

I had a few false starts with this scarf and needed to rip out the progress I had done and start over because I kept losing track of which row I was working on. I stubbornly thought that I could count to 8 in my head while watching reality tv, without a row counter (I was wrong). If you haven't made this pattern before, you need to increase, and later decrease, every 8 rows. This puts all of the shaping on one edge of the scarf to give you a triangular shape at the end. If you mess up because one of the Real Housewives is having a meltdown, you might just increase on row 7 or 9 and then your scarf will have a wobbly edge, but you unfortunately won't notice until you're several rows past the mistake. Probably. I'm assuming.

After digging out my row counter and starting to use it, this project was really fun to knit and came together fairly quickly. I learned how to increase and decrease knitting stitches, and also how to create the tidy I-cord edge that surrounds the entire scarf. I'm so pleased with the finished project and I wore it around the house as soon as it came off my needles. It's the perfect small accessory to keep your neck warm without being bulky. Here's a picture of me working on it (surrounded by cats) and a few pictures of the finished scarf before being blocked.

I'm completely shocked by the difference in crochet and knitting when it comes to how much yarn yardage you need. I find that knitting takes longer, but uses less yarn to make a similarly sized item. I like that this pattern can be worked with such a small amount of yarn, you really only need one small skein. If you weigh your skein at the beginning of the project, you could work increases, continuing to weigh your yarn, until you have a little more than half the yarn left. At that point, you can start to decrease and you should end up with little to no yarn left over. It's an easily adjustable pattern and I can absolutely see myself making more Sophie Scarves with some odds and ends skeins in my stash (watch this space).

Because this was the first time I was making the pattern, and I was using it to learn new techniques, I didn't do the yarn weighing trick. I followed the pattern completely, making the amount of increases required for the long length and then starting to decrease after that. This has left me with some yarn left over, but I don't mind that. I used a mystery ball of yarn that has been in my stash for years. I think I got it in a bag of individual yarn skeins at a charity shop when we lived in Portland. There wasn't a label with it, but I would guess that it's a merino sport weight yarn. I held that double with a strand of metallic and mohair lace weight yarn from a cone I bought in Paris a couple years ago. Knit together, the two yarns make a soft frosted cranberry colour with a nice fluffy haze.

The washing and blocking of this scarf took me a few days to get around to, partly because I was wearing the thing constantly and partly because I had ordered some gentle, wool-safe detergent and was waiting for it to arrive. It's been blocked now and I'm pleasantly surprised at how the entire scarf texture has relaxed and my stitches seem to have evened out a little bit. I absolutely love this little accessory and can see myself styling in lots of different ways over the coming months.