The Scarf Knitting Book

[neadods]

On the belief that a public ToC doesn't count as "previous publication," here's the list of scarf projects in the book and the lessons learned.

GETTING STARTED: Cable Cast On. Adding Yarn. Weaving Ends Binding Off.

KNIT PROJECTS:
1 - Garter Stitch Scarf LESSONS: Knit stitch, slip 1, ktbl (to make a chain edge)
1a - Stripe and novelty yarn options
2 - Mitered Square LESSONS: K2T, K3T, pick up and knit
3 - Patchwork Braid

YARN OVER PROJECTS
1 - Bias LESSON: YO
2 - Fagoting Stitch
3 - Mesh and Garter LESSON: chain row counter

PURL PROJECTS
1 - Stockinette w/seed border LESSON: Purl
2 - Twin Rib LESSON: Ribbing, difference between seed and rib
3 - Broken Rib

ROW COUNTING PROJECTS (Ways of making it easy)
1 - Feather and Fan LESSONS: Lace, numbered needles, lifeline
2 - "Programmable" LESSONS: Using a chain marker that "programs" the pattern (alternate eyelet lace, stockinette, and garter)

CABLE PROJECTS
1 - Baby cable LESSONS twisting stitch order
2 - 4-row basic cable LESSONS: cable needle (and substitutes)

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1 - Scarf with left cable, braided cable, and right cable, separated by eyelet lace

Other decreases will be held for Knitting 102. Other than those, anybody else see any basic lessons missing?

Also, it has come to my attention that if I want to have handouts by November, I need to start knitting now to have example photos. And I'm not sure I can. Ooops. This may be mystery knitting to some degree, in that I'll have how-to photos but no finished project photos!

Still looking for a title, if anyone has suggestions!

Comments

[ct]

What to do if catastrophe strikes: how to fix a dropped stitch, and how to insert (and use) lifelines.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know how to deal with a dropped stitch either

But yes - I meant to put lifelines in at Feather and Fan; let me add that.

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Yes, I need to know what a lifeline is. I keep reading about them. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Lifelines are run into knitting at a good "return" point - the end of a set of rows in a pattern, for example - so that if you mess up, you don't have to pull out and start over, you just rip back to the lifeline, pick up the stitches, and start from there.

I've picked up some good ideas about what to use as a non-marking, inexpensive line; I'll add them to the book.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

If the stitch is dropped just one or two rows down, you can... pull it back up and through. A crochet hook would help, I believe; I always try with safety pins there.

My record was fixing disaster across six rows. Would NOT want to do that again.

I am not sure if I could describe the technique to you, but if I see you at Chort's soon, I may show it?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Please do! I've caught it a row or two below, but the one time I tried to fix 4 rows down, I realized I kept pulling all the stitches through the same loop, so there's some part of the process I've missed somewhere.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Looks cool! And bless you for steering people away from stockinette stitch scarves that aren't double knit or bordered.

Maybe entrelac for some sort of picking up stitch pattern?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The border on the stockinette one serves three purposes:
- keeping it from rolling
- showing what an alternative pattern looks like
- Giving me a counter example for "Look, there's only a one stitch difference between seed and ribbing."

The one time I did entrelac, my wrists hurt for ages. And I'm a freak about anything that hurts my wrists - I treat bowling alleys like plague pits because I had to strap up my wrist for a week last time I bowled. And now I treat entrelac the same way.

Besides, there's picking up in the braid (it's an old quilting pattern; I have to fuss with it, but it should translate simply to knitting) and the mitered square.

I wanted to do a flying geese, but my pickups along the sides of a triangle are always sloppy. So, bad example.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Entrelac was something I was afraid of for awhile, but once I got the concept, it was deceptively easy.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I avoid it for two reasons:
- it hurts me and
- it's a bugger to try to describe in pictures. (I couldn't "get" knitting from static pictures in anything I looked at; for my own book, I'm going to be using 3 pictures per stitch, which I hope helps. Feedback will tell me if it does or not.)

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Yeah if it hurts don't do it. :( I love doing fair isle, but if I"m not careful, I hold things too tightly, and it hurts.

Need beta testers? I could try to get the Hoopy Frood to learn off of it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

YES, I need beta testers! I've got a preliminary set of volunteers from the last post with this tag, but I'm going to try to get more when I'm ready to start releasing patterns to testers which (I hope!) will be in November.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Sounds good!

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

I'm totally up for being a tester if this is your plan. Especially since it's winter here at the moment and the more scarves we have, the better. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The good news is, I'd love more testers. The bad news is, with everything else I'm doing, I doubt I'll get myself in gear to get anything out for testing until November, when it's probably going to be boiling in the shade over there.

[cozit.livejournal.com]

I might have missed it, but looks like you have decreases, but not increases. Someone already mentioned the picking up dropped stitches.

Including mini sections on "how to recognize" and "how to make that decrease look better" would be good. For example, how to make decrease stitches "slant" the "right" way... especially for those who end up doing something funky with the yarn. (ie. I have an apparently odd way of knitting that appears to be continental, but apparently the yarn slants the other way... means that even though I follow patterns, sometimes I have to double-check how the increases and decreases are done to make them "fit" the design best - seeing how they should look (and how they shouldn't) and why is helpful, even for a beginner *if* they are the engineer/logical type folks... even if they do it "right" and can follow the directions perfectly)

(BTW, I may usually use continental, but I often shift back to throwing when working something out.... because I re-taught myself to knit at some point when it had been a long time, and I'm one of those logical knitters, I always watch and work out what I'm doing as I go - and it all works out great in the end. However, if I'm following specific directions, I do just that... and see what happens as I go, so the testing should be interesting :-)

Oh, and I have no problem at all with mystery directions. Can't see what I think I should be seeing in half the photos out there (including a few close ones in a couple books I have), anyway.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Increases are the second section - yarnovers.

There's only the one decrease in this book, to get novices used to the concept - I remember from learning myself that slanting right and left and being able to even see the difference was pretty difficult when I was still struggling to determine if there was or wasn't a "right" and "wrong" side.

*If* the book sells and sells well, then I'll consider Knitting 102 and deal with other increases and decreases. First I have to sell the concept of knitting as nonthreatening and relaxing!