Continuing on with my little scarf series knit in the relaunched Hey Mama Wolf yarn I have knit up another one. This time in Ylva. I have to say I am obsessing about one skein projects at the moment and especially little scarfs, they are so cute. They are great to have in the shop to showcase how the yarn knits over a large area as well as showing you how much you get from 100g. One skein projects are fun and quick and a great idea for gifts. It’s also a great way for me to get to know the new yarn. So with the Hey Mama Wolf Ylva I have knit up the Kaarina Shawl (link to Ravelry) by Sari Nordlund.

Ylva is a 100% plant dyed German Wool. Dyed with a range of plant materials like Madder, Indigo and Weld on bases ranging from a natural off white to grey. Hey Mama Wolf has worked with a specialist dyer in Vienna who has created a surprising palette of the rich and deep colours. The fibre used for the yarn is core to Hey Mama Wolf’s values of sustainability and all sourced from small sheep farms in Northern and Eastern Germany. By choosing to support small farms they are able to ensure the farmers get a fair price for their fleece.

Ylva is DK weight yarn with 240m/260yds per 100g. It’s rustic and woolly to the touch with a good crisp feeling. It has an honest genuine wool feeling that I really enjoy. It blooms beautifully after blocking with a slight halo. It strikes me as the sort of yarn that will give you knitwear that will last and last and only get softer and more beautiful the more you wear it. With this in mind it would be ideal for jumper projects especially colourwork or textured ones. As the yarn has been dyed to such an intensity it is a good idea to note that some of the darker colours may bleed while blocking. If for example you are doing colourwork it would be advisable to pre wash your yarn before you knit it.

As I am on my little quest for one skein scarfs I had a dig through Ravelry and found the beautiful Kaarina Shawl (link to Ravelry) by Sari Nordlund. This little shawlette/scarf is designed for a combination of two 4ply weight yarns, one solid and one fluffy to create an overall DK weight. Thinking the Ylva would bloom well I thought this would be ideal for this project. The Kaarina Shawl comes in two sizes and I knit the first size, the second size would only take two skeins but I had my one skein mission. It’s knit from tip to tip widening towards the middle to create a triangular neckerchief style shape. It is alive with cables from beginning to end. I didn’t think I was very much of a cable person but this design really changed my mind. I found it really engaging, fun and very addictive as you work towards the longest row in the middle. It’s plain sailing from there as you decrease towards the final end.

The pattern is very clear and the cables are charted. I would say this is a pretty straight forward project if you are confident in cables and even if you are not it’s a great one to try. Its small scale means you will be an expert by the end. There are a couple of different cable types over four or three stitches but they soon become quite intuitive. There was only a couple of times during the first few repeats where I twisted my cable the wrong but I managed to correct myself. I ended up using 75g of yarn and my final scarf measures 92cm long and 25cm wide. It’s certainly a small scarf but still cute tied around your neck with a casual knot or I think it would be even cuter held in place with a a little toggle like a scouts neckerchief.