Sunday, October 21, 2007

High School Colors Scarf

I have done this scarf/stitch pattern in many variations. A friend/coworker saw me doing a similar one in a slightly different pattern and she mentioned that her birthday is in November and she would love one done in the colors of the high school we both went to (which is called East High, so my daughter thinks we are really cool since the High School Musical movie is set in "East High").

With the advent of Ravelry I have finally been pushing myself to write down what I do so here it is. The first time I did this pattern it was a Scarf Club at a local yarn shop. I have taken the stitch pattern from that original scarf/shawl and put it in to this scarf to show off any School/Team colors. I like the way it makes little +'s. The stitch pattern is truly addictive, I have made several scarves, that original wrap and put it into a blanket pattern as well. The pattern also works really well with different weights of yarn. The wrap I did had a tape yarn and a strand of lace weight mohair. I have also seen it done with a chenille and a boucle that was georgeous. Once you get the original scarf done experiment with some swatches and pull a couple of skeins out of your stash. This is such an easy pattern you could make several by Christmas. I did one for my sons teacher and she emailed me a year later (after he was out of her class) with more thanks because she loved it so much.

Feel free to email with any questions: addknitter@hotmail.com


High School Colors Scarf
Materials:
Size 8 (5.00 mm) straight needles
Main Color: 1 skein of Dark Horse Fantasy Yarn Red
Contrast Color: 1 skein of Dark Horse Fantasy Yarn Royal Blue
Any hard cover book about 8" tall for fringe.
Crochet hook for adding fringe.

Because I wanted to knit to the end of my skeins without wondering if I had enough for fringe I cut my fringe before I started knitting. I like really long fringe and I wanted it to be long enough to be able to trim it to an even length so I wrapped around an 8" tall book and only cut one side of the wrap leaving an approximately 16" strand. I originally wrapped the two strands (one from each ball) of yarn 60 times, but that didn't look like enough so I ended up going to 90 wraps which leaves 45 strands of each color for each end. Once I started putting this on I realized that was a lot. I think you could probably get away with around 70 wraps. See tutorial link below for directions on how to do fringe.

With MC cast on 31 stitches.
Knit 2 rows.

Row 1: With MC knit 3,*sl 1 stitch, knit 3*, repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches: sl 1 stitch, knit 3. (first and last 3 stitches form garter stitch edge.)
Row 2: Knit 3, knit the knit stitches and slip the slip stitches (with yarn to the back to keep the yarn floats to the back of the work) to the last 3 stitches, Knit 3.
Row 3: Change to CC, knit 5, *sl 1 stitch, knit 3* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, knit 5. What you want to watch for in this row and each row you change colors is that the slip stitch from the previous row should be the middle stitch of your knit 3.
Row 4: Knit 5, knit the knit stitches and slip the slip stitches (with yarn to the back to keep the yarn floats to the back of the work) to the last 5 stitches, Knit 5.

In this picture you can see I'm half way through a MC row. I have just slipped the stitch from the previous row and the next three stitches will be knit. You will notice that the slip stitch from the CC row is the middle stitch in the three stitches to be knit. This is very important for the stitch pattern to work out.

Repeat these 4 rows until you have run out of yarn or the scarf is as long as you like without fringe.

The back of your scarf should look like this (with all of the floats to the back):


You will probably want to block this as it has a tendency to pull in at the middle like a waistline. I will be using a steam iron on mine when I am done knitting because I have dogs and cats and they think leaving knitting pinned out and wet is an invitation for them to come deposit their hair on my newly finished project.

Add fringe: Fold two strands of fringe (one of each color) in half. Insert crochet hook from back to front. Pull the loop through and knot the fringe by pulling the end of the strands through the loop you have just created. Clear as mud? There is a very good beginners tutorial here: http://crochet.about.com/od/clothingforwomen/ss/swskscarf_4.htm


Enjoy!

1 comment:

Joan said...

Great scarf pattern. Thank you.