A rib tickling scarf!

Another few days of learning something new-ish and producing yet another scarf as a way of practising.

I decided to have a go at rib stitch. When casting on, you need to cast on a number of stitches that can be divided by 4. I casted on 28 stitches. For rib stitch you knit 2 stitches and then purl 2 stitches and keep repeating this until you reach the end of the row. When coming back the other way, you again knit 2 and purl 2. this creates a ribbed effect on both sides of the scarf.

When you finish with your ball of yarn or want to change colours, I used the same method as with my other scarves. What's great about the rib stitch is that when you do change colour you don't see the knit stitch, it appears seamless, as you would see with one side of the stockinette stitch. It's only if you stretch the item that you can see the knit stitch.

It's taken me a good few days to complete this scarf. I've discovered I'm a tight knitter, so as the scarves I've made are worn more, they'll stretch, making them longer. Even to me at the moment all the ones I've made feel quite short.

I've now invested in a wool needle to weave in those ends, which made it slightly easier. I've got some more projects coming up which involve learning to knit on circular needles and learning to use double pointed needles. I'm planning on making some baby hats and blankets for friends of mine that are pregnant. The hats are knitted on double pointed needles and the blanket because of the size will be knitted on the circular needles.

I'll be posting again when I'm shown how to knit "on the round".

Here is a picture of the ribbed scarf I made.

Another Scarf completed!

So after a few days of practising the purl stitch, I have completed another scarf.

I started it 2 days ago, but didn't do much. I done 1 and a bit patches. I've had 2 days of constantly going at it.

I've been trying to practice the stockinette stitch which is knit one row, purl the next row, and keep doing this until the item is completed. I found it was easy to forget which stitch I was doing so I've learnt to always finish on a purl, so I know the next row will be a knit stitch.

I went wrong on the first white patch so I ended up doing each white patch different. The joining of the sections were done as I've mentioned before. I always joined the sections using the knit stitch. I've also discovered that stockinette stitch is not great for using on scarves as it curls at the ends.

The advantage of stockinette stitch is that it produces one side flat and in V's which is really nice. This is definitely a stitch to use if you want to make jumpers.

Here is the finished product, before I weaved in the ends!

Binding off and weaving in ends.. My first item finished!

Today I finished my first scarf.

I've been away for a few days, so decided that to learn how to bind off and weave in the ends was best left until I came back.

I wasn't sure even looking through my stitch n' bitch book the way to bind of. It seemed quite complicated but once I started it's actually quite easy.

Firstly make sure you leave enough yarn at the end. You will need at least double the length of yarn to how wide your knitted item is to bind off.

When you're ready to bind off, make sure you are at the end of a row. Knit 2 stitches as if you were starting a new row. Then, lift the loop of the first stitch you put on the needle over your second stitch. Then knit another stitch and again lift the loop over the new stitch. You will notice that your work is slowly coming off (in a good way). When you get to the final stitch, cut your yarn and bring the end through the loop. Pull this. With the binding off keep the stitches fairly loose as it'll make it easier to bring the loop over the stitches.


I used the following youtube video's to help me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgwi3xgZzlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7adQs1x7b8

To weave in your ends is not hard. Again there appears to be a number of different methods. I've seen using a crochet needle, wool needles and weaving in whilst knitting. I waited until the end. I don't have any type off wool or crochet needle so if you're really stuck I used a safety pin. I stuck the end of the wool through the curled end and weaved my ends through the wool using that. It's worked really well.
Again there are lots of different video's on youtube which show you how to weave in your ends. All you need to do is bring the yarn through the stitches you have done so it blends in with the rest of the item.
Here is the video I used:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VKwq7kXfAA

My first finished knitted scarf looks like this: