Difficulty: Medium, due to basic lacework

Up until recently, I was a lace virgin. I had shied away from patterns that required yarns with more than six stitches per inch, and pretended to ignore the beautiful lace-weight skein of alpaca that fluttered its eyelashes at me from the shelves of my LYS. Finally, I came across a shade of purple that just would not be turned down. I bought three skeins, took them home, brought out my skinniest needles, and promptly got stuck.

None of the patterns I tried with this yarn looked right to me. So instead of trying to find something to match the picture I had in my head, I did my best to bring that picture into existence. Lacy Squares is what came out of this exercise.

A great starter project for someone just beginning to explore the world of lace, this scarf is made up of a simple repeating pattern of yarn overs and ‘k2tog’s, interspersed with garter stitch, which grow into row upon row of squares. This geometric and naturally uncomplicated design enhances the natural soft, sponginess of the merino giving it the scarf a three-dimensional quality.