and another world is heard from

Sorry about disappearing for so long.  This weekend, my family and I put up the outside walls on the "let's not freeze our pipes" project.  It was long and grueling work, and I literally just fell into bed once we got done.  Saturday, my Dad, my brother and I cut, sawed, and hammered until just past dark.  I cursed my lack of height again.  If I were even 4 inches taller I would have been more helpful.  As it was, I wasn't tall enough to do as much as I wanted to (even with the ladder I was standing on).  Curse you, barely average height.  Curse you.

Anyway, Sunday I went outside with my husband and the littlest beast and we tyvek'd the outside of the porch.  We're now at a point to do flashing and then windows.  And then we get to do the short wall.  The end is in sight.

I haven't taken pictures of the project this time.  A giant square of tyvek didn't strike me as particularly moving progress, so I'm going to wait until the windows are in.  Instead, I'm posting the pattern for the first Serious Scarf for everyone to enjoy (hopefully:).

Without further ado, here's the basic pattern

Charts are read from bottom to top, right to left (and then left to right).  Rows are numbered.

Here is the key so you can translate.

Key!  Feel free to print both.

So.  The edging of this scarf is simple seed/moss stitch (depending on locale).  There are 5 border stitches on each side, and the main pattern is 22 stitches wide.  You can make a scarf of pretty much any size just by multiplying 22x number of repeats and adding the border stitches.  There is one caveat.  In order for the textured part on the sizes to match, you will want to add an extra stitch to whatever count you come up with for your pattern.

What does this mean?  In the case of my Dad's scarf, I wanted 4 repeats.  So 22x4=88 stitches.  88 + 10 (border texture)= 98 stitches.  98+1=99 stitches to cast on.


After casting on 99 stitches (I used knitted cast on, but pretty  much any cast on you are comfortable with will work), I knit 7 rows in seed stitch (*(k1, p1)  *repeat (  ) to end).  The great thing about this texture stitch is it does not matter what row you're on, you'll always start with a knit stitch.  Front/back, they are the same.

After 7 rows, you will begin your right side pattern row;  however you have an extra stitch that will need to be removed in order for the borders to match.  What I did, is on row 7 I began the right side with k1, p1, k1, p1, K2TOG, and then began the center pattern.  This brought my stitch count back to 98, and made the borders match in a k1, p1, k1, p1, k1 pattern.

From here, I basically knit following the pattern until I was almost out of yarn.  I used roughly 1060 yards out of 1072 yards available;  8 skeins of Lark yarn from Quince and Co on size 6 needles.  I got 12 pattern repeats knit before I was close on yarn and needed to start the end border.  My finished dimensions were 92 inches x 32 inches wide, but you can change your dimensions by doing more or less repeats.

To finish the pattern, make sure you end your repeat on the row 30 of the chart.  You will be increasing one stitch across the top in order to bring you knitted width back to the odd number of stitches you started with (in my example that would be 99).  Personally, I just stuck an extra m1 in across the top of the right side row when I started across.  The picked up stitch is not visible, and it made the borders match.  Then I just knit 7 rows of seed stitch, and used a loose knitted bind off.  Et Voilla!  Block to desired measurements and give to someone you care for.

someone I care for

For those who aren't familiar with charts, here are the written instructions as well.  Please use the CO information from above to determine what size you want to make and the number of motif repeats you will be using.  Please be kind, I did this on the fly.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)  I know I can be a bit stream of consciousness.



Row 1 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *yo, ssk, k17, k2tog, yo, k1*   Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Even Rows 2 -30 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p to last 5 stitches,  k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 3 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *yo, ssk, k17, k2tog, yo, k1,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 5 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k1, yo, ssk, k15, k2tog, yo, k2,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1,p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 7 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k11, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k1,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 9 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1 *k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 11 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k4, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k5,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 13 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k6, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k3tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 15 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k8, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k9,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 17 k1, p1, k1, p1,k1,  *k9, k2tog, yo, k11,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 19 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k8, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k9,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 21 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k6, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k3tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 23 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k4, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k5,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired , k1p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 25 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1,  *k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired  ,k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 27 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k11, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k1,*  Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired,k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 29 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k1, yo, ssk, k15, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1