Zara Openwork Snood & Scarf in West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite 4 Ply - DBP0013 - Downloadable PDF

Zara Openwork Snood & Scarf in West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite 4 Ply – Pattern Summary

The Zara Openwork Snood and Scarf is an elegant knitting pattern designed by Chloe Elizabeth Birch, worked in West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite 4 Ply yarn. The pattern offers two accessories in one downloadable PDF: a circular snood and a scarf, both featuring a delicate openwork lace design that gives the fabric a light, airy quality. This is rated as an intermediate skill level project, making it an ideal next step for knitters who are comfortable with basic techniques and ready to explore simple lace construction.

What Is Being Made

This pattern includes two designs:

• Snood: A seamless circular neck warmer with a finished circumference of approximately 120 cm, designed to be worn looped around the neck. The width is given as a slightly stretched measurement, reflecting how the lace fabric opens up beautifully after blocking.
• Scarf: A long, openwork scarf using the same lace stitch pattern, offering a more traditional accessory option worked in the same yarn and technique.

Both pieces share the same stitch pattern and aesthetic, so knitters can choose the accessory that best suits their style or work both from a single pattern purchase.

Techniques Used

• Lace knitting: The central technique throughout both designs. The openwork pattern is created by pairing yarn-forward increases (yfwd) with k2tog tbl (knit two together through the back of the loop) decreases, forming delicate eyelets across the fabric.
• Blocking: An essential finishing technique for both pieces. The pattern specifically notes that the lace opens up when blocked to reach the finished measurements, so wet or steam blocking is strongly recommended to achieve the full drape and openwork effect.
• Garter stitch border: The snood begins with a garter stitch (every row knit) border worked on smaller needles before transitioning to the main lace pattern on larger needles, adding a neat, stable edge.
• Needle size transition: The pattern uses 3.25mm needles for the initial cast-on and border rows, then switches to 4mm needles for the main lace body. This technique helps control tension at the edges while allowing the lace pattern to open up fully in the body of the work.
• Slipping stitches purlwise: The abbreviation sl1p (slip 1 stitch purlwise) is used within the pattern, contributing to the neat stitch definition of the openwork design.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch (g-st): Every row knit; used for the border sections.
• Knit (K) and Purl (P): Standard knit and purl stitches form the base fabric of the lace pattern.
• Yarn forward (yfwd): Creates the lace eyelets that give the fabric its openwork character.
• K2tog tbl: Knit two stitches together through the back of the loop; the paired decrease for the yfwd increase. The pattern includes a helpful note to avoid working this decrease too tightly, ensuring the eyelets remain open and well-defined.
• Slip 1 purlwise (sl1p): Used to maintain clean stitch edges within the pattern repeat.

The pattern notes that both sides of the fabric are the same, meaning the lace design is fully reversible — a particularly desirable quality in a scarf or snood where both faces of the fabric may be visible when worn.

Materials

• Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite 4 Ply — a 4 ply weight yarn, chosen for its fine gauge and smooth finish, which allows the lace eyelets to show with crisp definition. The lightweight nature of 4 ply yarn also ensures that the finished snood and scarf are comfortable and drapey rather than heavy.
• Needles