Ethnic scarf in blue shades

110 x 180 cm of fabric, and what the length does

Start with the number. At 110 x 180 cm, this is a wide rectangle, not a narrow stole, and the width is what changes the way it sits. Left open, it reaches across both shoulders. Taken twice round the neck, it still leaves two ends hanging, rather than one short tail tucked out of sight.

Wide enough to sit across the shoulders

The width also protects the print when the scarf is folded lengthways. A narrow stole slices the bands in half; here three or four complete rows stay on view whichever way you fold it. The listing sets the shapes and lengths side by side if you would rather compare them before choosing.

A blue ethnic scarf read up close: arrowheads, diamonds and spirals

The print is built in horizontal bands and none of them repeats the one before. A row of large arrowheads outlined in navy gives way to thin diamonds, then to spirals with dots scattered between the lines. Because the bands alternate heavy and light, the pattern still reads once the fabric creases at the knot.

Mustard, used sparingly

Three blues do most of the work: navy for the outlines, a solid mid-blue filling the larger shapes, a pale near-turquoise lifting the detail inside them. There are only a handful of mustard accents, on a few diamonds and a few short strokes. Enough to keep the whole thing from reading cold, little enough that it still counts as a blue scarf in a wardrobe.

The listing, line by line

The photograph shows it knotted plainly at the neck with the ends left loose, which is the view that makes the offset between the two sides easiest to follow.

Long shape or square: which one does what

A long rectangle and a square are not two versions of the same thing. This one is made for wrapping: round the neck, over the shoulders, through the handles of a bag. A square folds into a triangle or a narrow band and goes where a long scarf will not, which is why a small square to fold into a band sits alongside it in the same range. If the drawer is already full of squares, the long shape is the one still missing.