It is difficult to find good lace stitches for scarves because many of the most delicate patterns look really nice only on one side.  This old Victorian lace design is actually reversible -- it looks the same on both sides.  It has become my favorite because it has a frothy, delicate look and it also works really well with multi-color handpaints. 



Shown above in Blue Heron Eqyptian Mercerized Cotton Lace in "Hibiscus" and below in Fiesta La Luz Silk in Cabernet:




I have to confess that although I selected the design for these scarves, I didn't knit them myself.  Since they are very long and this is a 9 row lace pattern, they required Herta's infinite patience.  I did try to knit one myself, but after I had completed about 14 inches on casein needles, I set a book on top of the work by accident, which caused the needles to break into several pieces, and the whole thing fell apart.  At that point I decided that this was a job for Herta-the-super-knitter.

Since then I learned one of the key tricks of lace knitting -- the "lifeline."  For those of you who are in the dark, as I was, this little trick saves your work if you make a mistake, drop a stitch, break your needles, or fall asleep over your knitting and pull it off the needles (I did that twice with my terracotta Cool Stuff extravaganza).  A lifeline is a piece of strong thread or yarn that you run through all of the stitches on a plain row in the pattern so that you can return to that point and pick it up again. 

The stitch pattern is a repeat of 12 stitches and 9 rows.  We used a border of 2 rows of garter stitch at both ends, and 3 knit stitches at the beginning and end of each row to form a garter stitch border on the sides.

The La Luz version requires two 2 oz skeins and is 6" x 84":

Using #6 needles, cast on 54 stitches.
Knit 2 rows

Begin Pattern:

Row 1 -  sl 1, K2, * yo, k2tog, rep from * to last 3 stitches, end k3
Rows 2 and 4 – sl 1, k2, purl to last 3 stitches, end k3
Row 3 – sl1, knit to end
Rows 5 and 8 – sl1, k2, *sl 1 – k2tog – psso, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4; repeat from *, end k3
Rows 6,7, and 9 – sl1, k2, *p3 tog, p4, yo, p1, yo, p4; rep from *, end k3

Repeat these rows until the scarf is the desired length.  Knit the last 2 rows and bind off.

NOTE:  The pattern was corrected on 3/20/09

The Hibiscus cotton version is about 12 inches wide and over 100 inches long.  For that version, use #6 needles and cast on 88 stitches.  It is absolutely stunning and has me seriously considering trying to make one for myself in the Blue Heron Bluegrass (the Hibiscus is beautiful, but not a good color for me to wear).  You will need two 8 oz skeins to make it that long, but you can get about 90 inches out of one skein.