The Elusive "Perfect" Knit Ruffle

Let me just preface by saying that I have not found the perfect ruffle, per se. However, I have found the ruffle that I think I'll be using here on out.

So...a while back I was drafting a pattern for an Elizabethan-inspired scarflette. I intended to pick up stitches along the bottom row to attach a short ruffle. After several less-than-stellar attempts, I had exhausted most of the "Frills and Ruffles" detailed here. I even cracked open Knitted Trims by Lesley Stanfield, an invaluable book I highly recommend.

Becoming frustrated with the "Belle Ruffle," I begrudgingly decided to try a top-down version of simple gathered frills. Somewhere along the line, though, I made a beautiful mistake!

The ruffle was to form the bottom of a collar, and lay across the collar bone. So, I picked up 60 stitches along the bottom of my work. I knit the next row. The following row was a series of *k1, yo accross, knitting the last stitch. Then, I made the beautiful mistake. On the wrong side, I p3ed and on every fourth stitch, I wrapped the yarn around the needle twice. The next row, I knit to the double yo and then knit into the front and back of that funky stitch. After the "kfb" row, I simply continued in stockinette stitch for the length of the ruffle.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to try something else. I tried to keep the stockinette ruffle from curling by switching to a slightly smaller needle before binding off. Thee resulting ruffle was almost exactly what I was searching for. It had the right amount of flounce, the ruffles were slightly bell-shaped but less uniform. The bottom did curl up a little, but laid mostly flat after a quick spritz-blocking. The ruffles are subtle and neat. In the future, I may try the fiddly belle ruffle, but until then, I've got a go-to ruffle pattern that is easily memorized, can be altered for a different multiple of stitches, and looks, in my opinion, fantastic.

Fast Pattern

Row 1:       Pick up an odd number of stitches with WS facing. I had 61 stitches.

Row 2:       *K1, yo across, k1

Row 3:       *P3, P1, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle.

Row 4:       *K3, Kfb

Continue in stockinette stitch.

Bind off in a smaller-size needle.