Not Quite A Smidge

It's not really a Smidge, which is the nickname given to the home-made Pidge look-alike on Ravelry. It doesn't have that zig-zaggy stitch that I swatched in that nasty green cotton. I am working on a Smidge that does use that stitch; but I find the double-kmitting slow.

But this IS a short scarf, held closed with two buttons.

The pattern I used is the one for a Multi-directional Diagonal Scarf, but only a fraction of a usual scarf length.

The yarn is Cleckheaton Vintage Hues. The colourway is 1268 - they don't seem to name the colourways, but citrus-and-grape seems about right.

The ball band says to use 6.5mm needles, but I used 5.5mm, as I wanted the garter stitch to close up a bit. With the two-colour strands of this yarn seen on the diagonal, it almost looks like linen stitch.

The finished length is 76cm/30 inches; width 11.5cm/4.5 inches.

I modified the cast-off (bind-off) end of the scarf to have a point or triangle end - I thought that looked better than just flat across.

I like this one.

Two Stripe Scarf 11

It’s another scarf!

I was enjoying the interplay of the stripey colours with the first one, so I was itching to start another. With this one, I wanted to play with peacock colours or ocean colours. I used a blue-to-black shade and a green-to-black. Moda Vera Crave is the yarn.

The green knitted up differently that what I expected. In the transitional areas from black to green, it looks almost yellow, which isn’t the effect I was after.

Oh well.

Two Stripe Scarf 1

It’s a scarf!

I got all inspired by this beautiful, no, magnificent, two-stripe scarf by Jared.

But I didn’t have Noro, nor does the budget extend to getting some.

I wanted a nice blokey look, maybe a little less colourful than the Noro. So I tried it with a couple of balls of yarn that shade light to dark; one shades from tawny brown to black, (it’s Moda Vera Crave) the other shades from light grey to dark grey (must track down the ball-band for this one). I would have preferred a black-to-grey shade, but I didn’t find one.

I’ve only ripped it once, just a short way in after starting, because I didn’t like the width. With the method of cast-on that I use, it quite often takes a few rows before the actual width becomes evident.

I like a narrow scarf, so there’s less bulk around the neck. So I restarted with fewer stitches.

It’s now 29 stitches wide over 13 cm (5 inches). Don’t quite know why there’s an odd number of stitches, but it doesn’t bother me.

So far so good.

Except, I’m really not all that happy with the light-grey to dark-grey. It doesn't have enough contrast between the light at its lightest point and the dark at its darkest point. Do I try to find a substitute? If I find a substitute, do I rip back what I’ve done, or just work the new colour in?

Decisions, decisions.

Byzantium Moebius Scarf

I had some Katia wool (Nordic Print) left over from the “Byzantium” hat , so I decided to make a scarf. Now, a normal scarf with a couple of wraps around the neck would have been very bulky in this yarn, so I decided to try a Möbius scarf.

Yeah, I know – probably a bit ambitious for such a newbie knitter. It’s not uncommon for my ambition and enthusiasm to greatly exceed my abilities and knowledge. But that’s how I learn stuff – jump in feet-first and hold my breath till I know which way is up!

It’s interesting what such a tricky cast-on and first few rows does to my mental state. I approached it in a kind of Zen frame of mind. Just do one stitch, see how it goes. I can do one stitch. Okay, I did one stitch. Now do another, I can do just one more. And so I did. And another. And another. It did get easier.

I used the simplest of cast-ons, it’s the one I usually use. Mainly because I haven’t learnt any others. Yet.

I don’t know what the cast-on is called. In macramé terms, it’s just a half-hitch.

It’s one needle in the right hand, and a loop of yarn across thumb and index finger on the left.

It’s very quick, no fuss. As the stitches aren’t really formed until the next row is knitted, it is also neither too tight nor too loose.

Its major disadvantage is with working the first row. The yarn between the made stitch on the right and the waiting loops on left needle grows and grows. I get round this a couple of ways – use that extra yarn to make extra loops on the left and drop the same number of loops at the end, or simply work with it until the end, where it just becomes a tail, long enough for sewing up. I always cast on with an extra loop at the end anyway, and that gets dropped off too. This can be a problem with knitting in the round, as there is no “end” from which to drop off those extras.

I didn’t use any specific pattern for the Möbius – just the instructions from here

I also didn’t want a shoulder-width shawl kind of scarf. I wanted a neck-hugger. I knew how many stitches I had cast on for Byzantium, and what circumference that many stitches made, so I just worked it out from there – how wide I needed it to fit over my head, but not have it sit too far away from my neck.

The stitch pattern I used was the “One Row Scarf” from the Yarn Harlot . I didn’t quite get the first couple of rows right – it was quite hard work getting those at all! I knew the pattern wouldn’t quite line up because of the off-set from knitting into the bottom loops of the cast-on.

Oh well. It is what it is, and I still quite like it. I can get my head through it, and it fits snugly. What more could I want?

Salsa Scarf

Crocus is having a holiday. It's reached a decision point, (what colour to do the next row), so I'm just letting it rest, with the philosophy that the answer will reveal itself when it's ready.

In the meantime, I've knitted a scarf.

It's the first scarf I have knitted in over 25 years. I used a simple reversible pattern of k2, k1b, P1, as espoused by the Yarn Harlot for her "One Row Scarf".

The yarn is Katia Venus, 50% wool, 50% acrylic. It's lovely and soft. Did I mention I'm a sucker for soft?

I call it the Salsa scarf because that's what the colour reminds me of.

Having finished it, I don't like it. The shading is supposed to give it interest, I suppose, but it just doesn't work for me. To me, it just looks like sections of the scarf have gotten dirty. Maybe the transisitons are not marked enough, or maybe the colour combinations don't quite work.

Maybe those gradations were supposed to work better in a wider garment, such as a jumper - the colour pooling might have made the relationship between the colours work better. Or maybe not ...