Me wearing the finished scarf with a black linen blouse I made from a vintage 30s pattern a while back!

Read on for a step-by-step tutorial of how I knit this 1930s-inspired Deco Chevron Scarf! A printable PDF is available if you scroll to the end. If you’d like to add this to your Ravelry projects you can do it here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/art-deco-chevron-scarf

As you may have seen if you’ve been following my knitting journey on my Instagram, in the year or so since I’ve started knitting I’ve gone—ahem—a little overboard with knitting projects. Vintage knitting projects, mostly. After the Seawaves jumper, I’ve also knit a pineapple reticule, a deco dagger collar jumper, a 1950s cabled cardigan, a 1940s chevron jumper for my mom, a colour-blocked cabled 40s jumper, and, oh yes, this neat little scarf!

After a visit to the Unravel yarn festival in Farnham earlier this year (2025), I became obsessed with Cool Woolings neon yarn, mostly due to how I could spot them across a huge crowd. I started thinking, what vintage item could I conceivably make with such “modern” neon colours? I picked neon orange and yellow because they reminded me of the reflective hazard signs I see all the time on the backs of British vans and ambulances.

The van chevrons look so deco, don’t they?

I was inspired by chevroned 1930s scarf and hat (and sometimes handbag too!) sets, but most of them were crocheted. I managed to find a knit scarf and hat set in the Monarch Instruction Book No. 39, pattern No. 537. (You should be able to buy a pdf of it on Etsy from the seller TangledSundries here). It had stripes and chevrons, everything I needed, yay!

“Ladies’ Hat and Scarf Set 537”

From Monarch Instruction Book No. 39

Unfortunately, when I tried to follow the pattern for the scarf, I found that the pattern for the stripes was incorrect. After knitting the first two stripes with short rows, it had you knit the rest normally, which would end up with horizontal stripes instead of the angled ones we need to make a chevron. I must had redid it three or four times before I decided to do my own version instead. And since I was aiming for the van chevron look, I decided to do away with the offset stripes (which required seaming anyway) and just knit them as continuous chevrons. So if you’d like to make a scarf like this of your own, read on!

Materials and Notions

Yarn
Cool Woolings 4 ply (85% Superwash Merino, 15% Nylon), 400m/100g, in two contrasting colours
-30g (120m) of dark coloured yarn
-42g (170m) of light coloured yarn
Gauge
28 stitches and 62 rows per 10cm square
Needles
3.25mm (US 3, UK 10)—straight or circular both fine
3.5mm crochet hook
Notions
Tapestry needles (to weave in ends)
Stitch holder
Finished size
102cm total length (40”), Chevron section 15.5 cm (6”) wide and 25 cm (9 7/8”) long, Scarf section 11cm (4 5/16”) wide and 50 cm (19 ¾”) long

Abbreviations

KNITTING TERMS

k: knit

p: purl

k2tog: knit two stitches together through front loop [decreases one stitch]

ssk: slip one stitch knitwise, slip one stitch purlwise, knit these two together through back loop [decreases one stitch]

k3tog: slip one stitch purlwise, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over [decreases two stitches]

kfb: knit the front and back on the same stitch [increases one stitch]

YO: yarnover [increases one stitch]

CROCHET TERMS

sc: single crochet, American usage

ch1: chain 1

Pattern Instructions

The scarf is worked flat. One chevron section is worked first, then stitches are picked up at the top edge to start the scarf section. When the length reaches 51cm from chevron tip to needle, the stitches are transferred to a stitch holder. The second chevron and scarf are then worked in the same manner, and the live stitches are joined to the live stitches of the first half and joined with a three-needle bind off. Two rows of crochet borders are worked around the edges.

CHEVRON SECTION—Make 2

Knit two chevron pieces total.With dark yarn, cast on 61 stitches using longtail cast-on on 3.25mm needles.

First stripe

ROW 1: knit

ROW 2: k1, kfb, k27, k3tog, k27, kfb, k1

These two rows form the garter stitch pattern. Repeat ROW 1 and ROW 2 an additional 4 times for 10 rows of dark colour. The stripe should be about 1.6cm tall.

Second stripe

Change to light yarn, while carrying dark yarn up on odd-numbered rows.

Knit in same garter stitch pattern as first stripe for 10 rows.

Third to Seventh stripe

Continue in same garter stitch pattern, making each stripe 10 rows tall, and carrying the unused colour up to minimize number of ends to weave in.

Eighth to Tenth stripe (decreases)

Decreases are done on even-number rows by changing the kfb increase to a k2tog/ssk decrease. This means on each decrease row 4 stitches will be eliminated.

Start eighth stripe with light yarn.

ROW 1 and following ODD rows: knit

ROW 2: k1, k2tog, k26, k3tog, k26, ssk, k1

ROW 4: k1, k2tog, k24, k3tog, k24, ssk, k1

ROW 6: k1, k2tog, k22, k3tog, k22, ssk, k1

ROW 8: k1, k2tog, k20, k3tog, k20, ssk, k1

ROW 10: k1, k2tog, k18, k3tog, k18, ssk, k1

Change to dark yarn. Continue knitting ODD rows plain.

ROW 12: k1, k2tog, k16, k3tog, k16, ssk, k1

ROW 14: k1, k2tog, k14, k3tog, k14, ssk, k1

ROW 16: k1, k2tog, k12, k3tog, k12, ssk, k1

ROW 18: k1, k2tog, k10, k3tog, k10, ssk, k1

ROW 20: k1, k2tog, k8, k3tog, k8, ssk, k1

Change to light yarn. Continue knitting ODD rows plain.

ROW 22: k1, k2tog, k6, k3tog, k6, ssk, k1

ROW 24: k1, k2tog, k4, k3tog, k4, ssk, k1

ROW 26: k1, k2tog, k2, k3tog, k2, ssk, k1

ROW 28: k1, k2tog, k3tog, ssk, k1

ROW 29: k5

ROW 30: Bind off 5 stitches.

Knit two chevron pieces total.

One chevron done!

The chevron is knit in garter stitch, with the points made by doing k3togs in the center while increasing one stitch on either side to keep it the same width.

Scarf Section

With right side of chevron piece facing you, use light yarn and crochet hook to pick up 33 stitches across the top (horizontal) part of the chevron in the decrease holes. Knit in following 2-row stockinette lace pattern until this section is 25cm long.

ROW 1: k1, YO, k2tog, k12, YO, k3tog, YO, k12, k2tog, YO, k1

ROW 2: purl

When scarf section is 25cm long (or longer if you desire), transfer stitches to stitch holder or scrap yarn.

Repeat this section on second chevron.

Pick up stitches on the chevron to knit the scarf!

Finishing

With right sides together, do a three-needle bind off on the live stitches of the two scarf sections.

The two halves of the scarf should look like this

Make sure not to cut the yarn on the second half so you can use it to do the three needle bind off!

Three needle bind-off connects the two pieces

CROCHET BORDER

Using 3.5mm crochet hook and light colour yarn, crochet a border along the vertical sides of the scarf (skipping the chevron points) using this repeat: [sc., chain 1]. The single crochet should go in the kfb holes on the sides of the chevron and the yarnover holes on the scarf section, and because these holes appear every other row a chain 1 is necessary to bridge the distance.

Change to the dark colour, then do the same [sc., chain 1] border around the whole scarf, including the points of the chevron.

First row of crochet border

Make sure you plunge the crochet hook into the holes made by the yarnovers to do the single crochet, which occur every other row, hence the chain 1 between each single crochet.

Weave in ends and wet-block. If using superwash yarn which grows when washed, putting it in the dryer on a low heat setting in a garment bag until it is 80% dry can make it shrink back to its original size. Then remove from dryer and block to size.

Pattern Variations

GAUGE VARIATIONS

As a scarf, gauge is not as crucial to getting a perfect fit as, say, a sweater. If using thinner or thicker yarn, you could either do calculations to get the gauge specified or knit with the same stitch count for a narrower or wider scarf, as long as you knit to the length specified.

SCARF LENGTH

The pattern as written produces a scarf section which is 50cm long, about enough to wrap around a 33cm-circumference neck once and tie a knot. If a longer scarf is desired (for instance, if you want to wrap around the neck twice), increase the number of rows in the stockinette-lace section by one neck circumference.

SCARF WIDTH

If a wider scarf is desired, after picking up the 33 stitches for the stockinette lace, you can knit one row of increases (using the M1 increase) to widen the scarf, then continue the pattern. Make sure to have an odd number of stitches.

STRIPE HEIGHT

The stripes can be made taller or shorter by changing the number of rows worked in each colour, just make sure to knit an even-numbered number of rows to preserve shaping. I suggest trying between 6 to 10 rows of each colour.

BORDER VARIATIONS

The crochet border can be replaced with an applied i-cord edge. In this case I would omit the YO and k2tog on the outside edges of the scarf section and just knit it in plain stockinette. Then I would use the dark colour to knit an applied i-cord edge along the entire scarf, including the chevron points.

Close-up of the crocheted border on the scarf

And that’s how I knit my hi-vis 1930s chevron scarf! Please share your scarf and tag me on Instagram (@laurencewenyuli) if you make this, I’d love to see it!