Progress/ Problems on Dad's Scarf

I've made a good bit of progress on my dad's scarf. It's about a third of the way done, maybe just over, and it's a ribbed stitch scarf.

I was kind of expecting the scarf to want to roll, so the edges are garter stitch to try and prevent that. But I guess that's not enough, because as you can see above, it is still really convinced that it wants to roll. I'm thinking of picking up stitches across the bottom and knitting a garter stitch border there, too, but I'm a little afraid that will make it look goofy, and that it just won't help that much.

But since the bottom is doing that anyway, it probably won't hurt.

I also chose the rib stitch because I kind of thought that it would want to roll less that a plain old stockinette. Maybe it's that the ribs are so big (4x4 on US 10 needles) that's really allowing it to roll, or maybe it's just the ribbing, but it is rolling, and I'm pretty disappointed.

It's a little hard to tell here, but these are three of the ribs obscuring the other two with the garter stitch borders.

Since it is acrylic, blocking is going to be a bit of a trial, although I just may try steaming it, and hope I don't destroy it.

Any suggestions on how to unroll this scarf would be much appreciated!

Happy knitting!

Dad's Scarf, Restarted

I finally got around to restarting my dad's scarf, and at first I really wanted to do the brioche stitch. It looks gorgeous, it's warm, and it looks masculine enough that I could give it to my dad. However, I don't know if the brown variegated yarn I'm using is just the wrong type of yarn, the needles I used were too big, I was messing it up, or the pattern just looks like that when it starts, but the first couple of inches of the scarf in the brioche pattern looked so bad that I ripped the whole thing apart and tried it twice more before I just gave up on the brioche stitch for now and went hunting for another pattern.

A lot of the other patterns I have in mind are either not great for scarves because they are one sided or they're kind of girly. While I wanted to do something that would be new for me, I also wanted to make something that my dad will actually wear, so I finally decided on a ribbed scarf with garter edges. It's 28 stitches across on US 10 needles and the pattern goes like this:
row 1: k4, p4,* repeat from * to last 4 stitches, k4
row 2: k4, *k4, p4* repeat between * until the last 8 stitches, k4, k4
So far, so good.

The way the ribs roll in as ribs do, I think it'll make a really warm scarf, and hopefully my dad will like it, especially after I've been working on the thing for years. I used a long-tail cast-on for the scarf, and I'm not wondering if that was really the right choice. I mean, it's not as if it can't stretch to the appropriate shape, but it is scrunched together as the end. I guess that'll just  be a problem for blocking to resolve.

Happy knitting!

Problems with Sister's Lace Scarf

After I finished my sister's headband a few years back, I started on a scarf. Originally, I followed the pattern which basically said to do to repetitions of the lace. And the picture below is the size the scarf sat at for more than a year. 

A week or two ago, I picked up my sister's scarf again. I knitted through the pattern once or twice and happened to glance at my ball of yarn only to realize there was no way I was going to be able to make anything scarf length the way I was going with the amount of yarn I had left. So I frogged the whole thing and started over only doing one repetition of the lace.

As you an see, I got a fair ways in the scarf before I realized that the scarf was curling in way more than I wanted, and I also got to thinking about how the pattern is not reversible. I decided that while this had been a good pattern for a headband, it was probably not the best pattern for a scarf, and I frogged the whole thing again.

Now comes yet another question of what should I make for my sister? I do want to use this yarn, and I already made her a headband. Maybe a scarf with a different or more plain pattern so she could still wear it with the headband? Maybe not a scarf at all. I guess I have been making mittens, although I suspect my sister will want fingerless gloves or maybe fingerless gloves that have a mitten part to cover the fingers. I'm not sure yet, but it's on my mind.

Happy knitting!

Re-Starting Dad's Scarf

If you read my post about my October Knit-a-long project, then you know that frogged all the progress I had made on my dad's scarf because I couldn't find yarn to match the original. I wasn't as upset as I could have been because I haven't worked on it for a while, and also the elongated chevron looked pretty silly on the end of garter stitch.

My dad's scarf before I frogged it.

I'm notorious for just buying a skein of any yarn that I think looks nice if I have some spare cash on hand. Just one skein. Rarely do I buy yarn with any specific project in mind, but rather because I think I'd like to make something for a specific somebody. This often lands me in some trouble because I'll get the yarn home, make a project with it, and then have some left over, but never quite enough for whatever it is I want to make. This has happened to me with multiple scarves because looking at the yarn left after another project it seems like there's going to be enough for a scarf, and then I end up having to start over making a thinner scarf or give up entirely. This is the situation I'm in with my dad's elongated chevron scarf. But I thought to myself, "Hey, I know where I got the yarn, so I'll just go back and buy another skein and I can finish this scarf up." Unfortunately, my lack of planning meant I went to the store without the yarn and came home with a similar skein of yarn that didn't actually match the original.

Now not only am I going to have to start this scarf over, I'm going to have to start it over with the new yarn and leave a decent quantity of the other yarn without any idea of what I want it to be. At first I thought the old yarn would be a perfect candidate for my scrap blanket, but it just seems like there's something else I could use it for first because there's more than I really want left for me to add it to the blanket. One of the previously finished projects I have that I have not yet had the chance to post about it the hat I made for my dad with this yarn. I don't want to make another hat with it, but I'm not sure what else I could use it for. That is, until I found the October Knit-a-long.

October Knit-a-long project made with the old yarn from my dad's scarf.

I'm not sure if the cuff is going to use up enough of the yarn, but that's a problem for November. Now that I have that yarn in something, I just had to decide if I wanted to continue my dad's scarf with the elongated chevron patter. Well, I didn't really because the pattern is a pain to knit, and I think I'd have to do the whole scarf in it to make it look even reasonable, and I'm not sold. Maybe it would look better in a blanket. I have been drooling over the brioche stitch recently, and I think that's the way I'm going to go with this scarf. I'm pretty nervous about doing the actual stitch for no particular reason, but hopefully it will work out, and I'll have a scarf I can actually give to my dad.

Happy knitting!

Mom's Finished Scarf

Fall is finally here, so it is time again for me to pick up the knitting which I have been so shamelessly ignoring for the past few months. The first project I picked up was my mom's scarf because it is mostly garter stitch (every row is knitted) and I figured it would be an easy warm up to get back into knitting.

And it was! I finished the scarf in about a week which was super gratifying, but not without first having to remember how to purl (I did have to watch the video to make sure I wasn't going to make a mess of my box stitch when I was so close to being finished) and having to learn how to make tassels (or fringe).

Remembering how to purl was simple enough and once I watched the knit witch do a couple of purl stitches my fingers remembered how, and I was off. The tassels were a little but different as far as learning. I had an idea in my head of how adding tassels to a piece would work, and I was pleased to see that I wasn't far off when I watched a tutorial. Knowledge firmly in place, I was sure that I could make the tassels and have my mother's scarf finished in no time. However, what I didn't count on was how annoying long it would take to measure and cut the yarn for each tassel, cut the pieces again to make the tassels actually look like tassels, and then attach them to the scarf evenly. I think it was at least an hour later, but I finally had the tassels finished

and a finished scarf which I will be able to give to my mother, and it will mostly match her hat!

Happy knitting!

Boyfriend's Finished Scarf

I finally finished boyfriend's scarf. It took me forever and I was knitting like a crazy woman, but it's finally done. I wanted to have it done on the 24th so that I could give it to him at his family's Christmas, but I missed that by three days. It's cool, though. He'll get it just the same, only now he won't get it until the 30th because I'm home for Christmas.

The finished scarf. It's about six and a half feet long when it's rolled out.

All in all the scarf didn't give me much trouble. After all, it was just knit. I did have to remind myself how to bind off, but I looked it up and refreshed my memory. However, I did make a mistake while I was binding off. For whatever reason, I lost my mind for a second and cut the yarn as if it was just an end I was going to weave in. Yeah, it wasn't, and I ended up cutting it at about half the length I needed, so I had to tie the ends back together.

A close up on the pattern of the scarf.

I'm still unsure whether or not I want to tie fringe onto the ends. I guess I can wait until I give it to boyfriend and ask him whether or not he'd like it.

It took me a year, but I finally finished this scarf, and I could not be happier. Is it the most refined project even I've ever done? No. Are there a few spots that look a little messy? Sure. But will boyfriend love it just the same? Absolutely.

Happy knitting!

Trouble with Dad's Scarf

I finally made it to the store to pick up more yarn to work on my dad's scarf. I was pleased beyond belief when I got there and saw brown variegated yarn that looked just like the yarn I had. I was less pleased when I looked around a little more and saw another similar brown variegated yarn. Which one was it? Was it even one of those at all?

I picked one and hoped for the best. I also picked up three more things of yarn that looked fun. I got them home and excitedly pulled out my dad's scarf only to have my heart broken.

The yarns aren't the same. At all. I guess I could actually bring my knitting and go check the other one to see if that matches, but I'm afraid it won't either. Or, like, been a normal person and bought enough yarn when I knew they had it or at least kept the thing that told me what specific color it was.

So now I'm looking at either waiting longer and taking another trip back to shop for yarn or ripping the whole stupid thing apart and starting the scarf all over. I may have gotten the whole of the body done in an afternoon, but the end but took me awhile, and I really don't want to rip out all of my hard work only to do it all again.

Dad's Scarf

Last year I was able to finish my dad's hat before I went back up to school. However, I wasn't able to get his scarf done. This year, I've put in a lot of effort on his scarf. The only problem? I ran out of yarn and I haven't made it to get more yet, partially because I'm afraid that the same yarn won't be there. I'm going to run into the same problem with my sister's scarf if I ever pick that up again as well as my mother's scarf. I forgot to plan for this last year. I should have known when I was barely able to finish my grandmother's scarf which I made pretty thin and shorter than I wold have liked. But I didn't think about it. So now I'm out of this brown variegated yarn with Christmas only a week away.

I am, however, pretty please with how my dad's scarf is looking. Apart from the I-can't-continue-it thing.

I was, I guess, lucky enough to be able to get all of this done a few weeks ago. Boyfriend had strep again-he gets it every year-so I took him to the medi-center so he could get it taken care of before it turned into scarlet fever. That really happened once. While he was doing that, I was sitting in the waiting room knitting away. I finished up all of this scarf I could that day, and now I'm super bummed that I can't do anymore. I suppose that's my own fault since I can't manage to get to the store, but I'm still annoyed regardless.

Box-Stitch Scarf

Last year I began my mom's second gift to match her hat. It was originally a shawl using my biggest needles. I was quickly discouraged from this project because the big needles are a pain to work with. When I picked it up again this year, I ripped the whole thing apart and looked at some of the patterns I had bookmarked earlier to work with and found this box-stitch. I decided to do a similar thing as I had with my dad's scarf which is to pattern the ends and just knit the middle. I may put some silly tassel-y guys on the end, but I'll see what the finished project looks like first.

When I started yesterday, all I had managed up to that point was three rows of boxes at the end. This is what the finished end looks like now.

It is five by five boxes which I think gives it a nice symmetry. Then I moved into the body of the scarf which is garter stitch, and I just knitted away at until I had this:

It's over a foot and a half now which I think will put me about a quarter of the way there. I think I'm going to aim for six feet like with boyfriend's scarf. Then again, because this scarf is thinner, I might be able to get away with shorter. I guess I'll see as it comes along.

UPDATE: I linked the pattern to this page up near the top. However, I should note that instead of doing knit two, purl two, etc. I did knit four, purl four, etc. to make the boxes more apparent.

Winter Again Means Knitting Again

I recognize that I kind of let this go after not too long last year. I went back to school and well . . . But I've been doing work on my knitting projects again this year. The one that's come the farthest is boyfriend's scarf. Last year it was only one flag, but now I'm onto the fourth flag.

It's come a long way, and I'm really pleased with how it's looking. I'm glad I went with the gauge I did and the number of stitches and all that I did. I think I'm going to have it be seven flags long when it's finished. That should be good and long and cuddly for a scarf. I'd like to have it done for this Christmas, but we'll see. It's not the only project I have after all.

Lace Scarf

This is the scarf I'm making for my sister. I like this pattern a ton, and it's a lot easier than the one I'm making for my dad, but it's still pretty tricky. I'm using US 10 needles (6mm) for this. 19 stitches and the pattern repeats every 12 rows. I had to learn (or rather relearn what my grandma taught me years ago) how to knit two together (k2tog) and slip slip knit (ssk) for this pattern. That's how you get the neat lacy pattern. That was certainly interesting, and I had to restart more than once while I was figuring it out.

I made a headband first, (which can be seen on the right there under finished projects) with the same yarn and the same pattern, and it turned out really well, and I'm pleased with the way this scarf is looking. I like the variegated yarn a lot, but it's not very good for seeing these patterns I want to knit. Almost ironically, I'm using solid colored yarn for a lot of the pieces I'm not doing patterns in.

PS. I found this pattern on a knitting blog, but I can't remember for the life of me which one. If anyone out there recognizes this and knows which blog I'm talking about, I'd love to link to it. I don't feel comfortable giving the pattern myself because I didn't create it, but I'd love to share it.

Happy knitting!

Elongated Chevron Scarf

I'm knitting this scarf for my dad. I made him a matching hat for this past Christmas, but I didn't get the scarf done (or really started), and I already missed his birthday, too. I'd like to have all of these scarves done for next Christmas. I'm using US 9 needles (5.5mm). The is worked on multiples of 18 plus 1, and I'm working with 36 plus 1. And I promise to take a better picture of this soon. You can kind of see the pattern, though.

If you happened to notice the picture of this scarf yesterday, you'll notice that it's a little different today. And not in an I've-completed-more-of-it way, but in an I-ripped-the-whole-stupid-thing-apart-(not that that was very much really)-and-started-over-again-only-now-it's-twice-as-wide way. This was the scarf yesterday:

and at the top is it today. I decided that it was too thin (only about three inches) for a man, so I made it wider. I'm not super excited because this pattern is a huge pain in the ass, but it looks really cool. I'm torn whether or not to do the whole scarf in the chevrons or just do the chevrons as the ends. Again, they look so cool. But they're so hard. And it's not like this is even the best yarn to see this pattern in. Poor choice on my part when I made the hat, but the hat is made and on my dad's head, so the scarf has to match, and here I am.

I'm thinking at least two repetitions of the pattern, and then maybe switch into stockinette. Then again, maybe not. I guess I'll have to wait and see how much I freaking hate this pattern after two repetitions. Updates to follow. But not tonight.

Happy knitting!

Irish Flag Scarf

This is the beginning of the scarf I'm knitting for Shane. It's going to be a repetition of the Irish flag, you guessed it, in scarf form. He's Irish and requested that I knit him this scarf after being unable to find a similar scarf at Goodwill. We got there too late and someone had already snatched it. Major bummer. So I'm knitting him this one. Hopefully it'll be better than the other one because it will be exactly what he wants, at least as far as length and width. My cat is currently rolling all over it. I guess that means he likes it which must be a compliment.

I'm using US 8 (5mm) needles. 30 rows of 40 stitches per color, all knit stitch. I think it looks pretty nice so far, if I do say so myself. I'm just using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. It's acrylic and so a pain in the ass to block because wet blocking doesn't work, but it's cheap and more or less does the trick. I'm pretty pleased with the green and orange, but for whatever reason the white is pretty coarse, and I'm afraid it will be itchy. Maybe I'm just imagining it; or maybe the green and orange, which are very soft for Red Heart, will make up for it; or maybe it just needs to be washed. I hope it works out, though.

This is going to be the largest thing to date that I've made (and completed). I make a lot of hats. I love knitting hats. I've also done a headband which was very quick. And I have made some scarves before, but this one is wider than any of those, and I have a feeling Shane's going to want it to be incredibly long. Which is fine. As long as he doesn't expect it until next Christmas.

I'm really great about getting obsessed with things. Once it was baking. There was a period when i made cookies for everything. And not just a batch of chocolate chip cookies. We're talking elaborately decorated cookies. For example, in high school, a girl on my cross country team who I'd gotten somewhat close to had her birthday during the season, so I made cookies that spelled out "Happy Birthday E----" and a giant cookie for her proclaiming her new age. Or cooking or crocheting or knitting and sewing. Sometimes I'll hole up in my room for days or weeks at a time and take copious notes and study which has been my obsession for the last several months as I draw terrifyingly close to the end of my undergrad degree. Or I'll dig out some markers and write poetry all over my windows. (That one really weirded my roommate out when I lived in the dorms.) Sometimes I'll sit in front of my computer for days, barely taking time to eat or sleep, and just write forever. I've pumped out more than one short story that way. Or reading. There was a summer some years ago when I read no less than a book a day. Sometimes it's TV shows. I've watched seasons upon seasons of shows for days on end. Sometimes, to my embarrassment, it's FaceBook games. You know. My mother says I have a one track mind. I like to think of it as getting "locked on," to reference Skins.

Tangent aside, I really like the way this is looking. I kind of wish I had gone with stockinette stitch, but I really don't feel like starting over. I've also never worked with multiple colors before. I was surprised with how easy it was to switch colors. There will potentially be an update this evening to show how much progress I made today with this scarf. My goal is to at least to get back into green tonight.

PS. I hope the knitwitch doesn't mind me linking to her how-to's, but she's my favorite YouTube how-to for knitting.

UPDATE: I did get through the orange and back to the green like I hoped. Sorry the color's a little wonky. I had natural light earlier, but now it's dark, so I only have lamplight which makes everything yellow. And I'm using a webcam, so everything looks a little wonky always.