A polymath: not a jack of all trades, but a master of many. Designed with that precious skein of handspun yarn in mind, the polymath scarf is a clever, but simple, pattern that looks fantastic worn as a scarf, cowl, hood or shoulder-warming wrap. The simple lace pattern allows the beauty of multi-coloured and thick-and-thin yarns to shine, whilst helping to stretch that limited yardage further. So many benefits make it a veritable polymath of patterns.

How will you wear yours?

This pattern is rated as beginner to advanced beginner. It would make an ideal first lace knitting project. With the less experienced knitter in mind, the pattern contains extra notes on:

• creating a gauge swatch to achieve the same size piece as the pattern (or re-size it) with different yarn
• cast on and off techniques
• blocking

There is also an additional page of useful links to web tutorials for all the key techniques used in the pattern available to download as a separate sheet for those who need it.

It also contains notes on how to achieve the various looks (cowl, wrap, scarf etc).

My green/brown/cream sample was knitted using a beautiful handdyed handspun thick and thin yarn by ThreeWelshHens. The example by ludivine77 used an even more extremely thick and thin yarn that shows texture of the pattern to great effect. If you don’t have a handspun yarn in your stash, some of the more textured commercial yarns also work to give a similar look. The beautiful butterfly-buttoned example by my test knitter lizzyangel666 used 3 skeins of Manos Del Uruguay Clasica.Whilst LamourDuTricot used an artful blend of Noro Silk Garden and Lion Brand Amazing to dazzling effect. Or, of course it also looks great in a plain yarn, as the sophisticated green version by Tigerli shows!

My thanks also go to my other brilliant testers:
RavinRed
kabluete