Ravelympic Knitting - Part 1.5

Little Scarf
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I'd call this "Part 2" but the project was so small and fit in between everything so well, I almost hesitate to give it a whole section. A gym-buddy of mine is giving her daughter an American Girl doll this year and she approached me with the question of "How much would it be to have you knit a scarf for her?". She wouldn't take "nothing" for an answer (I knit for gifts, not for pay, because putting a price-tag on the time and effort it takes would make things ridiculously expensive). So we settled on her covering the cost of the yarn, and I'd pick out what I had on hand that was suitable. What I grabbed was a 1/6-sample of a skein I had from a sock-yarn swap. Perfect!

This little scarf took perhaps two hours to knit, but probably less. I knit while watching TV and didn't put much effort or concentration into knitting vs watching. It used under 40 yards of fingering weight yarn on Size 2 needles. I dug out the yarn and pattern while I allowed the part of my River Forest Gansey to block. The hardest part? Translating it!

The original is in French (PDF link). I own an adult version of this sort of scarf in the book 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders but while I could modify that one, it wouldn't give me guidelines for what would fit a doll. The French pattern was already written in doll size and when I debated the difficulty of recalculating gauge (not very hard) AND having to figure out what the "correct" size was for an American Girl doll versus the amusing challenge of translating a language I didn't speak--working with the French pattern won out.
MY TRANSLATION
Using fingering weight on size 4 needles:

Cast on two stitches
1st row: knit 1, make 1, knit 1
2nd row: knit 1, make 1, knit until the end of the row
Repeat row 2 until you have 18 stitches
Knit for 10 rows garter
Separate every other stitch onto two different needles. (9 sts on two needles)
Knit 1/1 rib on one needle for 10 rows, break yarn and knit 1/1 rib on other needle for 10 rows
Rejoin by knitting one stitch from each needle, alternating (18 sts)
Knit in garter stitch for 4 inches (20cm)
Halve stitches by k2tog, p2tog, repeat to end
Knit 10 rows 1/1 rib
Next row increase to 18 sts by k1, m1, last stitch kfb
Knit garter for 10 rows
k1, k2tog, knit to end of round
Repeat last row until only 2 stitches are left. Bind off.

Notes:
I used Size 2 and not Size 4 needles, and Socks that Rock Lightweight yarn (fingering). My "Make 1" was a lifted bar increase, from back to front and then knit into the front to twist. On the first row after joining in yarn, I knit with the live yarn and the tail for several stitches and then just cut the end. It saved weaving in later and doesn't show up at all.