The National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan, is an annual extravaganza of all things cherry. Its events include picnics, parades, orchard tours, an art fair, and of course, all the cherries you could dream of in every form you can imagine (and some you probably couldn’t). It’s a highlight of the cherry season for Michiganders and the visitors from around the world who come to enjoy it every year.

Our Cherry Festival Scarf evokes northern Michigan’s sweetest delight in playfully elegant fashion. Knit end-to-end in sumptuously dyed Merino yarn from Why Knot Fibers, the scarf showcases the best the cherry has to offer: delicate blossoms, clusters of ripe fruit, and the wide lattice weave of a perfect pie crust.

And like the cherry itself, Cherry Festival Scarf is a delightful combination of sweet and tart. The lace patterns are suitable for an advanced beginner, with enough repetition to catch the flow but enough challenge to keep the knit interesting. The motifs are designed to complement one another and transition seamlessly, and each stitch pattern is both charted and fully written out. The various sections can be lengthened, shortened, or omitted entirely to accommodate your yardage and preferences.

Version: This pattern is written for sport-weight yarn. For the lace-weight version, please see the original Cherry Festival.

Yarn and Yardage: Two skeins of Why Knot Fibers’ Spunky, a bouncy multi-ply Merino yarn in sport weight, in the Inara colorway.
Or, approximately 500 yards of similar sport-weight yarn.

Needles: A size 8 U.S. (4.5 mm) needle for working flat over 10 inches of fabric, or size needed to obtain gauge.

Notions: Two stitch markers, and a tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Instructions: The pattern includes both charted and fully written-out instructions. The charted instructions are included two ways: two charts to a page, printed in landscape orientation; and one chart to a page, printed portrait orientation.

Special Thanks: To Cindy. You know why.

Techniques Used: Basic-to-intermediate lace knitting (lace worked only on the front side, all-over motifs, double yarn overs), purling through the back loop (ptbl), working back and forth.

Errata:
Helpful knitters have identified several corrections that need to be made to the original written instructions. These have been incorporated into the new version of the pattern. The updated rows, as corrected, are listed below.

Crust II
Row 23: K6, k2tog, yo twice, k5, yo, ssk, k6, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, k5.
Row 41: K1, k2tog, yo, k11, yo, ssk, k5, k2tog, yo, k10, k2tog, yo, k2.
Row 45: K4, yo, ssk, k10, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k10, k2tog, yo, k4.
Cherries I
Row 13: K5, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, k21, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, k5.
Row 17: K1, k3, k2tog, yo, k10, k2tog, you ktbl, yo, ssk, k10, yo, ssk, k4.
Row 25: K12, k2tog, yo, ktbl, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, ktbl, yo, ssk, k12.
Row 27: K11, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k11.
Cherries II*
Row 3: k1, k2tog, yo, k15, ktbl, k14, k2tog, yo, k2.
Row 17: K1, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, k5, yo, ssk, k15, k2tog, yo, k5, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, k1.
Row 28: P6, ptbl, p23, ptbl, p6.
Row 37: K16, k2tog, yo, ktbl, yo, ssk, k16.

Additionally, the written version originally changed stitch count by increasing 2 stitches at the beginning of the Blossoms section, while the charted version did not. The updated pattern brings the written version in line with the charted version. The changes necessary to complete that adjustment are listed below.

Blossoms I
Row 1: Knit. (0 sts inc.)
Row 27: K31, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k to end.
Row 29: K29, k2tog, k1, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 43: K15, k2tog, yo, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 45: K16, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k to end.
Row 47: K14, k2tog, k1, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Blossoms II
Row 11: K22, k2tog, yo, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 13: K23, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k to end.
Row 15: K21, k2tog, k1, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 19: K7, k2tog, yo, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 21: K8, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k to end.
Row 23: K6, k2tog, k1, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k to end.
Row 43: K7, k2tog, yo, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, yo, ssk, k1
twice, k to end.
Row 45: K8, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k2 twice, k to end.
Row 47: K6, k2tog, k1, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k3 twice, k to end.
Row 51: K2tog, yo, yo, sl1 k2tog PSSO, yo, yo, ssk, k8
three times, omitting the k8 on the last repeat.
Row 53: K1, yo, yo, 5/2, yo, yo, k9 three times, ending
the last repeat with k1 instead of k9.
Row 55: K2, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k1, ssk, k6, k2tog, k1,
k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k3 twice, ending the last
repeat with k2 instead of k3.