Monday, March 8, 2010

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.
Little ScarfLittle Scarf
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.

2 comments:

Cosmo DK said...

Thank you! I am such a doll fan, and have quite a bit of sock yarn stockpiled, and laceweight.

The vinyl children will be happy to get such lovely scarves.

BarPurple said...

Thank you so much for the translation! I've just finished knitting this scarf for my son's class travelling teddy.

barpurple on ravelry :)