Successful Knitting Lessons

About a year ago I taught my daughter-in-law to knit. She decided to knit a scarf and we bought yarn and needles and I cast on about 25 stitches for her (don't ask me why that many...I have no idea) Anyway, she knitted all the skein of yarn and when I went back for another visit, she had a square!!! So we pulled it apart and re-rolled the yarn and she cast on 10 stitches and I left.

My most recent visit saw this result! She is an amazing new knitter, her gauge is so smooth. On this visit, we bought more yarn, a size 11 bamboo needle and she started a new scarf. Three days later I got a phone call asking how to cast off! She is a whiz. I just might have another knitter in the family to share my obsession...to help keep the interest stoked, I sent her two of my circular needles with the short cable designed for scarfs so she won't have to keep fighting that standard length stiff cable that knitters despair over.
Of course am going to have to send her The Knit Stitch book to inspire her!

Gift Idea

I like to knit dishcloths and I like the Ballband Dishcloth because of the color combination possibilities. This year for gifts I am doing pairs of cloths and switching the color positions. I think it makes a nice set.

A Sparkly Ending

This scarf is knitted with a chenille yarn wound with a variageted yarn. To keep the edges smooth, always slip the first stitch. I forgot here and there and you can see where I did!



I am not too fond of fringe on the end of a scarf, except in the case of the automatic fringe on the vertical scarf, but I find that people really respond to something fun on the ends of an otherwise plain scarf. I know this yarn is colorful, but it IS repetitious.

So I found some glitzy furry yarn that looked good with the scarf color and crocheted about four rows on the end.

Yes, I know these ends could be knitted, but I tried that and the gauge was odd on the fancy yarn and it distorted the rest of the scarf.....I just used a largish crochet hook and made my stitches loose and got a nice effect, I thought.

Taking a scarf in a different direction

Have lots of leftover fancy yarns from previous projects? I do. I sorted them all by color families. At this time of year I think in terms of scarves and all those scraps of yarns were just begging to be made into a scarf, but I wanted to go in a different direction with scarves, literally.

I chose a basic knitting worsted that was neutral to the color family and cast on 250 stitches on a medium sized needle, I think a 9. For this scarf I knit four rows in garter stitch, then switched yarns. I put the basic yarn between each four rows of fancy yarns.

Yes, you will need a loooooong circular needle. I have Denise Needles and just strung a couple of the cords together.

For the fringe: when you add yarns, you have tails. Don't work them into the scarf body when you are through, they make great fringe. First tie adjacent strands together with square knots, then add more fringe the usual way. Then trim.

Make a scarf this way and I guarantee you will not see another one like it anywhere.