Knitting the Simple but Clever Grand Picot Chunky Scarf

The Grand Picot Chunky Scarf is a head-turner. At least three Farm & Fiber Knits team members have it on our must-knit lists, and it’s been a favorite of readers, too. It uses the tweedy Studio Donegal Soft Marl to add dimension and a rustic surface to the simple stitch pattern, and the gentle curve of the edging makes it sweep across your shoulders when you wear it.

On paper, several things about the pattern look surprising. I decided to pick up a few skeins of Studio Donegal Soft and try it out for myself. (And designer Lori Steinberg says that you don’t need to block it—especially appealing for someone whose last shawl has been waiting to be blocked for at least 3 months.)

What I Thought I Knew

I’ve knitted a number of garter-stitch lace-edged scarves and shawls before, so I thought I knew what to expect. As I looked at the pattern, though, several things about it struck me as unusual. Well, I’m an intrepid knitter. I could fix those quirks in my version. (Spoiler: aside from making it longer, I didn’t change a thing. Lori Steinberg’s design shows an awfully smart understanding of how knitted fabric works.)

Applying the Edging

An applied lace edging generally runs at an angle to the base of the knitting. Many shawls have you knit the main part as long as you want it, then turn and add a lace border off the side. The Grand Picot Chunky Scarf calls for knitting a lace strip, binding off, and then working the lace edging in the same direction. Wouldn’t it be simpler to knit the base strip and the edging at the same time? You could use the same ball of yarn, and you could skip the sometimes untidy picked-up edge. You could knit both parts to the same length and bind off all the stitches.

The slipped stitch between the lace strip and the edging makes a fold that's nice to wear. Photo by Matt Graves

I cast on enough stitches for both parts and started working. I didn’t even finish the first edging repeat before I ripped it out and cast on for the base strip as written. The column of picked-up stitches creates a natural fold in the scarf that gives it dimension and also makes it easier to wear—the scarf is wide, and that fold makes it easier to put around your neck. The base lace strip repeats over an odd number of rows, making it difficult to read your knitting when attaching the even-rowed lace edging.

Most importantly, the curve of the edging comes from the picked-up edging. Forcing the two patterns into the same row stripped away that charming detail.

Skipping Rows

Lori’s pattern calls for occasionally skipping a row in the base scarf when attaching the edging. Just . . . pick up in the next row; don’t sweat it. What? Surely that would look like an error.

I tried it. No one will ever know. The base lace pattern has a pronounced three-dimensional accordion structure that draws it in lengthwise, and attaching the lace edging at the stitch that presented itself looked natural.

Scarf Length

When I first saw the pattern for the Grand Picot Chunky Scarf, I looked at the length and did a double-take. I usually knit my scarves to the same length as my height (about 68" or 173 cm). The sample scarf measures only 55½" (141 cm) long. I would definitely be making a longer scarf.

The Grand Picot Chunky Scarf functions more like a crescent shawl than a scarf. Photo by Matt Graves

In the end, I didn’t run out of yarn, but I didn’t make the scarf as long as I’d planned, either. Unlike a traditional rectangular scarf, the Grand Picot Chunky Scarf has that sweeping edge that reminds me a little bit of a crescent shawl, and the cast-on and bind-off edges are slanted, too. You probably wouldn’t make a crescent shawl that was 68" across—that would be huge! When we photographed Lori’s sample, it was just perfect with a shawl pin, and it didn’t seem too short at all.

A big shawl pin is the perfect finishing touch to the Grand Picot Chunky Scarf.

How to Use Every Yard of Yarn

My initial plan was to use up every yard of the lovely Studio Donegal Soft, but I wasn’t sure how long I could afford to make my base strip and still have enough to make a wide-enough lace edging. If you need to use every inch of your intended yarn to make a Grand Picot Chunky Scarf, here are two ways to make sure that your base strip and lace edging can be the same length.

The first way is mathematical: For my scarf, I started with one ball for the base strip and two balls for the edging. When I’d made the scarf as long as I wanted, I had used roughly 75% of a skein for the base strip and one and a half skeins for the edging, so I would reserve about two-thirds of my total yarn supply for the edging.

The second way is practical: Make the base strip as long as you like and leave the stitches on a holder while you work the edging. If you run out of yarn for the edging, rip out extra rows of the base strip. If you have enough to keep going, put the edging on hold while you work more rows of the base strip.

In the end, Lori Steinberg’s scarf is the best kind of knitting: something that gives a gorgeous result with deceptively little fuss, and a design that’s engaging enough to keep you knitting but not so complicated that you have to block everything else out. It’s perfect travel knitting, and when the winter brings a chill into the air, you’ll be so happy you made one!

Get the pattern for the Grand Picot Chunky Scarf here.