I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

OK, I’ve come to a decision about the scarf. I’m frogging. I can’t stand scarves that curl in at the edges and this is clearly going to curl even with a good blocking.

But, I really like the stitch pattern, especially the strong lines of decreases which you can see really clearly in Rebekkah’s Scroll Lace socks. So I set about figuring out how to keep those lines while working in garter stitch.

Here’s the result:

It’s difficult to see in the crappy, pre-dawn photo but basically, I worked the selvage stitches and the decreases in stockinette stitch and kept everything else in garter stitch.

Compared to the portion knit wholly in stockinette stitch, the garter version is obviously much flatter:

Thumbs up or down?? I’m thinking thumbs down. I’m just not feeling the love for the garter stitch. It really ruins the charm of the stitch pattern.

But, wait! There’s “Plan C.” What about a cowl?? I can stop the bottom and top edges from rolling with garter stitch or moss stitch and the rest of the piece can’t curl ’cause it will be a tube.

Something to think about.

All of this experimentation with spinning twist and plying twist has had the unexpected consequence of renewing my interest in knitting with my handspun. While I was rooting around in the roving cupboard, I came across a fingering-weight 2-ply that I spun from some yummy Shetland.

Last year I saw a cute scarf that Brooke knit from a stitch pattern Barbara Walker calls Scrolls. I bookmarked the page on Brooke’s blog but I didn’t even have to pull out my Barbara Walker Treasury because I found a free scarf pattern on the Kollage Yarns website that uses the stitch.

I haven’t knit much on the scarf since I’m trying to finish up a secret project, but I’ve knit enough to realize that the edges of the finished scarf are probably going to roll . . . a lot.

A quick check on Ravelry revealed that at least one person who used this stitch pattern for a scarf reported that the edges on her scarf curl.

I’m contemplating frogging and working the stitch pattern in garter stitch instead of stockinette. Anyone done that with this particular stitch pattern or am I on my own??

Yarns:

• Noro Kureyon - 1 skein #207 and 1 skein #170
• Tahki Donegal Tweed - 1 skein #886

Needle: 6mm Addi Turbo circular

Finished Size: approx. 72 inches long

Link: Ravelry

I first saw a striped scarf made from alternating balls of Noro yarn in the Vogue On The Go book, Scarves Two. The scarf in that book was designed by Kristin Spurkland and was worked in a 3×1 rib with three skeins of Noro Kureyon in colorway #95. It was an interesting idea, but the 3×1 rib didn’t appeal to me since the scarf had an obvious right and wrong side.

A few years later, I stumbled across Adrian’s fabulous Noro striped scarf which was worked in a 2×2 rib. Hmmmm . . . much better. No right or wrong side. So I bought some Kureyon but never got around to working up the scarf.

Fast forward to the recent phenom created by Jared when he knit a 1×1 striped scarf from Noro Silk Garden. All the lovely striped scarves cropping up around blogland and on Ravelry got me thinking. Was there a way to make more subtle stripes?

Why, yes there is:

Here’s how I worked my scarf.

I used two different colors of Kureyon which I spit spliced together (after I cut out the dreaded violet in one of the skeins) and one skein of Tahki Donegal Tweed in a dark color with flecks that complimented the colors in the Kureyon.

• Using the Donegal Tweed, cast on 33 stitches.
• Attach the Kureyon and work across the row as follows: k1, *p1, k1; repeat from * to end of row.
• Using the Donegal Tweed, work back across the row, keeping in the rib pattern.
• Work the next row with the Kureyon.
• In order to alternate the two colors each row, you must use a circular needle so you can slide the stitches to the correct end of the needle when it’s time to switch yarns.
• Keep working in this manner, i.e., 1×1 rib alternating yarns each row, until you almost run out of the Donegal Tweed (you’ll use all the Donegal Tweed but not quite all the Kureyon). Bind off in rib but work an occasional k2tog so the bound-off edge doesn’t flare.

That’s it.