Designing Scarves

I mentioned in the entrelac post that I tend to skip important words in knitting instructions. I find I am better off designing my own, using the template from a published pattern and choosing stitches from a stitch dictionary.

By choosing my own stitches, I can make the project simpler to knit, keeping it in my comfort zone. After struggling to no avail with that MS3 shawl, I decided that any lace or texture project I knitted had to have extremely simple repetitions. I want a "big bang for my buck" stitch recipe.

What really triggered this scarf designing path I find myself on, was "Leafy Scarf" in Special Little Knits from Just One Skein. I keep losing stitches, even though it looks simple. This book does not use charts and I need charts for lace knitting, to see where my stitches should be.

Anyway, I have collected several yarns that I want to use "right now", so have a collection of ziploc bags, each containing a different project, three scarves, one shawl, and one pair of Cascade 220 Superwash tube socks, in a basket by my chair. I knit on one for an hour or so, then switch. I believe this is called "Knitting ADD"???

First of all, this is a scarf knitted from Malabrigo Alpine Pearl. I am using a "crossed braid" pattern for a nice thick texture. It is a two pattern repeat; my kind of pattern. I also knitted a beret and fingerless gloves with this amazingly soft and cuddly yarn.


Next is a scarf from an Elizabeth Lavold wool/silk blend. I have had this yarn awhile and finally had to cast something on with it. I like my scarves no more than 5" wide and quite long. The lace and textured patterns in my stitch dictionary were not working out. I suddenly remembered my sock knitting book and found a plethora of textures and lace patterns that were wonderful for a narrow scarf. This one is lacy triangles with very simple repeats. I might not have gotten the sock knitting 'bug' but I am enjoying the book, anyway! There will be many more lace projects from this book.


And, finally, this is a scarf that I am not pleased with, so I cast it off from boredom as soon as I could tie it around my neck for a little extra warmth. The problems with this one is primarily that I don't like laceweight yarn knitted on big needles. The pattern called for an even bigger needle. On the upside, this wool/silk blend is amazingly soft and I have enough for a shawl. Someday.



My main tip in this blog entry is to look at sock patterns in a new way....those patterns for the legs make wonderful scarves. And if you do knit socks you can have scarves to match them!