Pattern Release: Smithfield Scarf

Though Pittsburgh has had many nicknames over the years, one of them is City of Bridges -- after all, some have said that Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other city in the world! When you live here, you find yourself crossing a lot of bridges to get to different areas of the city, so you get to know many of them. My favorite has always been the Smithfield Street Bridge, which crosses the Monongahela River and connects Downtown with the South Side. Why is it my favorite? I think it likely stems from when I was a little girl and felt like I was driving into a castle.

The Smithfield Scarf is inspired by this amazing bridge. The bridge as it exists today is actually the third iteration: The first version was wood, but it burned down in the Great Fire of 1845. That was replaced by a wire rope suspension bridge, but as the city grew, it became too narrow to handle all the traffic crossing it. The current bridge is a four-lane lenticular truss structure. I tried to incorporate elements of all three versions in this scarf.

The construction of this scarf is dead easy. You cast on at one end and work the cable motif flat. Once the center is done, you pick up along the sides and work some ribbing. Easy peasy. The cable pattern is both written and charted.

As written, this scarf is long enough to wrap around the neck several times or wear in the European style, as in the photo above. I once again used the wonderful Ross Farm Fibers 3-ply Shetland Sport (this time in Marigold), and it made a wonderfully warm and squishy fabric. The day we took these photos was clear and sunny but also cold and a bit breezy, and my neck was nice and warm! The scarf could be knit in any weight yarn, of course, provided you adjust your needle size to get a relatively firm fabric, and it's super easy to add or subtract length.

There's just one more pattern in the Stitchburgh collection to go!

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