Reversible faux cable scarf

I asked my 22-year-old son what I could knit for him. (I don't like wasting my time on stuff that will not be used.) He said he could use a scarf. So, the hunt began - I needed something manly enough for him and fun enough to knit for me. I eventually found an online pattern, couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I came up with this. I think it works. He wanted it long enough to fold in half and poke the ends through the fold - ya know what I mean? Anyway, that ended up being 7 feet long. To wear unfolded, the scarf really only needs to be 4 to 5 feet long.

The pattern is what I like to call a faux cable (I don't know - the knitter's bibles probably have an "official" name for it). It looks like cables, but you don't need a cable needle and (wonder of wonders) you don't have a "wrong side" to this scarf.







Both sides look the same. The 1 x 1 ribbing at each edge of the scarf also prevents the scarf from rolling up into a tube (I hate when that happens!).

When I was about 5 feet into the scarf, I could tell I was going to run out of one of my colors before it was long enough to wear folded in half, so I decided to throw in some asymmetrical stripes on one end. That'ld be stylish, right? I was so hoping it wouldn't just look stupid - like I'd run out of yarn, or something. I recently took a class offered by my local weaver's guild on stripes, (taught by Sarah Pilgrim - don't you just love that name?) so I took this opportunity to play around with one of the ideas she gave us. I decided to try using the Fibonacci series to design my stripes. Here's how it works:

You add two numbers together to get the next number. So, if you start with 1, you add the number before that to it to get the next number. What did you say? There's nothing before 1? Exactly right! So you add "nothing" to 1, in other words 0. Now your series is 1, 1. Now it gets easy. If you can just remember how to set it up, you've got it made.

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21...

This series is also known as the Golden something or other (you're on the Internet, look it up). It's what makes the Mona Lisa's face look so -- so right.

Since I needed another couple of feet on my scarf, I decided to start with 8 and go down to the 1,1 at the end. 8 of what, you ask? 8 repeats of my basic pattern. Each 6-row repeat gave me an inch, so that was 20 more inches - close enough to 7 feet for me.

Here's a picture of how the stripes turned out. Since I was holding the yarn double, two different colors, I just replaced the color I was running out of with a different color. It kind of kept things the same, but I was hoping the stripes would still show up well enough.

Yarn: Mountain Colors, Bearfoot - held double

Color: A deep burgundy with a variegated yarn with lots of the same deep burgundy.

Colors added: Dark brown, variegated green, light brown, variegated blue, fuchsia, teal.

Needles: US size 8

gauge: Doesn't matter - it's a scarf, not a sweater!

Abbreviations:

K - knit

P - purl

K2tog - knit two together

K2K - K2tog but leave on needle, knit the first st again and slip both sts off needle

Here's the pattern:

CO 36

Setup row: [K1, P1] X 3; repeat K4, P4 until last 6 stitches, [K1, P1] X3

1st row: [K1, P1] X 3; repeat K2, K2K, P4 until last 6 stitches, [K1, P1] X3

2nd row: repeat 1st row (turning work, so you're now knitting on the "back" of the scarf)

3rd row: [K1, P1] X 3; repeat K1, K2K, K1, P4 until last 6 stitches, [K1, P1] X3

4th row: repeat 3rd row

5th row: [K1, P1] X 3; repeat K2K, K2, P4 until last 6 stitches, [K1, P1] X3

6th row: repeat 5th row

Repeat rows 1-6 until the scarf is of the desired length, ending on row six. Bind off in pattern, substituting K4 for the K2K nonsense.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Here is my Baby Surprise Jacket. (Pattern found in The Opinionated Knitter, along with the adult surprise jacket and little matching mitered bonnet and booties.) I've got two grand babies coming, and I hope one of them will be a girl so she can wear this. I finished weaving in the ends and putting on the buttons today. I used Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn, Sun River colorway. It's not very exciting on the skein, I think - too much fuchsia - but when it's knit up I absolutely love it!

Here's a detail of the buttons. Aren't they perfect? I'm sure they're made from Fimo clay. Should be easy peasy to make some next time!

















Here's a close up of the buttons and miters after washing. This particular yarn gets softer and softer every time you wash it. The mohair in it blooms beautifully.

Christmas Ornament 2008

I decided to continue my mother's tradition of making ornaments for her grandchildren. Now that I've got one grandchild and two on the way, it's getting to be something I can't just start and finish on Christmas Eve. I'll have to be more organized next year! I dug out a mini sweater pattern designed by one of my knitting friends. I wanted it to look like a Weasley sweater from the Harry Potter books and films. I knit it up with my favorite sock yarn, Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I used navy for the main sweater and a nice golden color for the letter. This one is for Abram.


I knit the sweater completely with the navy, rather than mess with the intarsia method in such a small project. Then I added the letter by stitching over the existing stitches with the golden yarn.

Thread a dull darning needle with a long piece of yarn. (One yard will be plenty.) Bring the yarn out at the bottom of a stitch where it forms a V. Insert the darning needle behind the stitch above, following where the right leg of that V goes.


Here's a closeup. (sorry it's so blurry - hope you can get the idea anyway)










Make all your stitches following the path of the yarn as it moves from one stitch to the next. It's a serpentine kind of move.


























Here's the finished A. Now just to weave in the ends and seam up the sleeves!










To finish it off, I made a little wire hanger out of 20-gauge copper/tin wire.

Welcome to my new blog! My sister goaded me into starting a blog for my knitting. She's got a fabulous blog of her own. She does lots of tutorials and is an apronista extrordinaire. You can visit her here: http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com/

Right now I several projects on my knitting needles. I'm making a gi-normous bag that I based the color and pattern on a Navajo rug. I've got a pair of socks from Kat's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters that keep getting set aside for urgent family knitting. Of course, I've got a couple of Christmas presents going, but I daresn't give any details on those until after the fat man comes.

I just finished the cutest little Baby Surprise Jacket (pattern available here: http://www.schoolhousepress.com/spunout.htm). I'm teaching a knitting class on it in January. I used double-stranded Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn. It's such yummy yarn! I've made a couple of pairs of socks out of it, and it only gets softer as you wash it. The machine washable-ness of it makes it perfect for baby clothes.

Hopefully pics soon to come!