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My brother loves to request crazy custom knitted items and I love how much faith he has in my creativity! His latest request was to knit up a scarf in the same motif as the Dude’s sweater in The Big Lebowski. I was pretty grateful he didn’t request that I knit the sweater itself, so I gladly accepted the challenge!
Where to Find The Dude’s Sweater Pattern
At first, I thought I was going to have to chart out the sweater motif myself so I started googling photos of the sweater and then I saw a few Ravelry pattern pages come up in the search results with instructions for the sweater. I decided to take a stab at searching Ravelry to see if there was a scarf pattern with no luck, but, I found a Big Lebowski-inspired hat pattern, which is exactly what I needed! Thanks, Virginia Cosgriff! I knitted the scarf in a big tube, just like you’d knit the hat! Easy!
The Yarn Really Ties the Project Together
Knit Picks had just released their new Woolen Cotton yarn line when I started knitting this scarf and I knew my brother would love how soft the cotton and wool blend would be up against the sensitive skin on his neck and face. The colorways are all beautiful neutral tones, so they had a great selection of tans and browns to choose from for the scarf.
I ended up picking Shaun Heather for the main color, Hereford Heather for the dark brown parts and Birdseed Heather for the lighter brown stripes. It’s not a 100% exact match to the original sweater, but I’m happy with it because it meant I got to use this super soft yarn that I knew my brother would love. (If you don’t mind using 100% wool you can check out the color options in Cascade 220 – banana cream, copper heather, and chocolate. If you like acrylic, I see some great potential matches in Vanna’s Choice – beige, taupe, and chocolate.)
My scarf ended up being 83” long, plus the two sections of 5” fringe, and I used 436 yards of the main color, 218 yards of dark brown, and 91 yards of light brown. So, I needed two skeins of the Shaun Heather and only one of the other two. I bought way more than that, so maybe I’ll make the hat next
My #1 Top Tip: Knit This Scarf on 16” Circular Needles!
I’ve knitted two fair isle scarves using this same “tube” construction and I did both of them on longer circular needles using the magic loop method. It was challenging managing the multiple yarn strands along with the loops of cable at the ends of the piece and I was never happy with the tension at the ends – the floats always pulled too tight or too loose – I could never get them just right! So… I made a brilliant decision and I will never look back: I used 16” circular needles!
If you read this blog a lot, you know that I almost exclusively knit with Knit Picks needles, and I am a huge advocate for investing in interchangeable circular needle sets instead of buying individual needles, so I followed my own advice and treated myself to a shorty set! Knit Picks has shorties in their Sunstruck line, which are my favorite needle material, so it was meant to be!
Let me tell you, I’m so glad I got this set! I’ve already been using it on other projects from hats to doll clothes and I can’t believe I went this long without it! It’s a dream.
So, before I sign off, I’ll just make some notes about the scarf construction in case you want to knit your very own Dude Sweater Scarf! As I said, I used the charts from Virginia Cosgriff The Dude Hat. The hat comes in three sizes but all the charts are 20 stitches wide, so it doesn’t matter which ones you reference. I did three repeats of the 20 stitch charts in my scarf. I strung it all together as follows:
- I cast on 60 stitches and joined to work in the round, then started the scarf off with five plain rounds of the main color.
- For the portions with the dark brown zig-zag thing between the light brown stripes, I modified the chart a bit: I made the light brown stripes 3 rounds high, then I did 3 rounds of MC, and then I did the dark brown zig-zag part exactly as it was charted, then I did 3 rounds MC and 3 rounds light brown again to keep it symmetrical.
- I knitted another five plain rounds of MC and then knitted the main motif exactly as charted, then finished off with five plain rounds before doing the stripe/zig-zag section again…. repeat until satsified with the length, then I cast off.
- I “sealed” the open ends of the scarf tube when I added the fringe: I cut 10” strands of yarn and used a crochet hook to poke through both sides of the scarf and pulled the yarn through to tie for the fringe. (If you don’t know how to make fringe, there are tons of tutorials out there! Here is one.)
And then, as usual, here are my full project details…
yarn details
Knit Picks Woolen Cotton in Shaun Heather, Hereford Heather, and Birdseed Heather
DK Weight
50% Merino Wool, 50% Pima Cotton
Hand Wash Cold / Lay Flat to Dry
100 g/218 yd skeins
Purchased in October 2023
project details
pattern: Charts from “The Dude Hat (Lebowski)” by Virginia Cosgriff (purchase on Ravelry)
needles: US size 6 (4.0 mm), 16” circulars from my Sunstruck Shorties Interchangeable Set (wood)
gauge: 21 st and 24 rows over 4” (blocked) measured over plain stockinette area, not colorwork
yarn used: MC (Shaun Heather): 2 skeins (436 yards); CC1 (Hereford Heather) 1 skein (218 yards), CC2 (Birdseed Heather), 0.42 skein (92 yards)
finished size: width: 5.5” (laid flat), length without fringe: 83”, fringe length: 5”
duration: October 2023 – May 2024
Just for funsies… a pic of us modeling the scarf!
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