Knit Knacks: Boy's Scarf

 

Boy loves red. Red and elephants. So, he requested a red and white scarf with elephants on it. I found a chart for an elephant on ravelry.com, but it needed some tweaking before it would work. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

I cast on (with two strands of yarn) 20 stitches (both colors, 40 stitches total, front and back).

The checkerboard pattern was 4 X 4. At every edge I slipped the last stitch as if I were purling, to get that pretty braided-looking edge.

If I could change anything, looking back, I would have turned the elephant to being feet down on both ends of the scarf.

I realized, once I got to Boy's name on the scarf, that, unless I got creative, his name was going to be backwards on one side. That did not make me happy. So I started brainstorming, and created a chart that did different things on each side, rather than stitching a reversible pattern.

So, on this particular scarf, his name is on one side, and, on the other side, his name is there, but flipped horizontally in the opposite direction. (Sadly this means, on one side, the elephants are upside down when you read his name, something I fixed with NoWay's scarf.

I measured the scarf to be just a little taller than Boy himself. This seems to be a good length for him, particularly as I didn't want to do all the work and have it only fit for one season.

We live in a hot climate, so we don't even really need scarves, but Boy enjoyed wearing his scarf to school everyday.

chart for elephant 10 X  15 (I excluded the last stitch on the tail)
If you look at the pattern you can see the arrows to show which direction to read the pattern on each row. This really is essential, with double knitting, or it won't look like anything at all!

Knit Knacks: Boy's Blanket

I am really bad at reading and following directions.

In general i am a fast reader. Maybe that's the problem. I start reading knitting (or other) directions and my brain, lazily, just proclaims, "Blah blah blah blah."

So, my brain doesn't like traditional instructions for knitting patterns, so I have sort of reinvented everything as I go along and try to teach myself to knit. YouTube videos are also an awesome way for me to learn new stitches and techniques.

Surely I'm not the only one who gets bogged down with CO 35 k2 p2 (k2 p2 *)? Not to mention kfb or ssk?

I also stink at keeping count and, as I only may have five minutes (if that!) at a time for any project, I either have to keep it really simple or chart things out.

I love knitting, despite my inability to approach it in the traditional way or follow patterns, so I just play around with learning things my way. It's a great thing for me-- I can see progress instantly, I'm making something usable (so no crafting guilt), it keeps my hands and mind busy, and my hands are so strong now that jar lids are easy prey!

These were the first three things I ever really knitted. They are actually pretty easy.

To Grammy from Boy

I love Grammy Chicken the Best!

Turkeys wiggle a lot.

Look how big our artichoke is!

This is Wind. Isn't she pretty?

Boy

Boy, Oh, Boy.

All boy-- macho and sensitive. Bold and shy. Quick in brain and foot. Passionate and stolid.

Loves his brothers. Loves the chicks. Loves babies. Always has. Born to be a big brother.

Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy!