Hufflepuff Scarf
Quite a while ago (I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been) a friend asked if I would knit her a Hufflepuff Scarf. Who am I to turn someone who loves my hand knits down? The immediacy of the need went up several knotches when she moved to upstate NY. {isn't anything north of New York City considered upstate?}
Now, I love being true to inspiration when I can. So I did my homework. I watched every Harry Potter movie, noted the different styles of the scarves, and gave my friend A the options. She chose the style with thin double black stripes. And thankfully, no fringe.
Then came the next set of options:
To K1P1 across the whole thing - which is what they appear to be in the movies
To knit it flat - stockinette on only one side, and have sides roll
To knit it in a tube - so that it's stockinette no matter what side you're on
The latter won out for me hands down. Mostly because I know my K1P1 isn't as clean as it could be. If I were machine knitting this though...that's probably the way I would have gone. Though it is true that I could have knit this flat and then seamed it, thus avoiding the dreaded joggless jog. But I think things came out really well. It was just, um...very boring? And the narrowness meant that I needed to use the magic-loop method, which also slowed me down.
(it was about 14 degrees outside when we took these shots!)
My saving graces? Starbucks, Hubby giving me a weekly 'night off', and determination. For the last several months E has encouraged me to get out of the house one night a week and do something fun. For me that's sitting at Starbucks and knitting on something fun. I'd take off around 6:30 and stay out until the store closed at 9pm. Aah...at least two solid hours of relaxed knitting while drinking my coveted Grande No-Water Chai Tea Latte. This scarf was my faithful companion until it was finally done. Plus the time away from home meant that I could find a little more clarity of mind. I was suddenly returning home inspired and rejuvenated. All the while my sweet little EM is playing with Daddy and getting calmed for bed with sweet Daddy cuddles. I think having me out of the house has been good for E too. It's allowed him to bond more with his son, and to have special time with just him - no Mommy-enforced schedules. I love that.
Here's the skinny on the scarf details, and my observations from staring at a paused movie on a big tv from about 6 inches away.
* Stripes - the Thick colored stripe appeared to be 2x the height of the Thin Medium Thin stripes combined.
* Once I got a gauge that I liked I decided that meant - Thick stripe = 24 rows, Thin stripes = 3 rows, Medium stripe = 6 rows.
* I also determined that there were 13 thick stripes, thus 12 sets of Thin/Medium.
* I cast on provisionally, and later Kitchener stitched the tube ends shut once all my yarn ends were woven in.
* I opted to carry the black yarn up behind the Medium stripe so as to avoid two more ends to weave in. In a similar manner I didn't cut the yellow yarn at all, just carried and joined as needed.
* I 'reset' my jog row back to the first stitch of the row with every set of Thin/Medium stripes. The thicker yellow stripe was so thick that you wouldn't see one single stitch missing from one single row. If you did? Well, then you're obviously invading personal bubble space! Or you're a knitter and was examining my work.
Hufflepuff Scarf project page (all yarn/needle info is there)
My saving graces? Starbucks, Hubby giving me a weekly 'night off', and determination. For the last several months E has encouraged me to get out of the house one night a week and do something fun. For me that's sitting at Starbucks and knitting on something fun. I'd take off around 6:30 and stay out until the store closed at 9pm. Aah...at least two solid hours of relaxed knitting while drinking my coveted Grande No-Water Chai Tea Latte. This scarf was my faithful companion until it was finally done. Plus the time away from home meant that I could find a little more clarity of mind. I was suddenly returning home inspired and rejuvenated. All the while my sweet little EM is playing with Daddy and getting calmed for bed with sweet Daddy cuddles. I think having me out of the house has been good for E too. It's allowed him to bond more with his son, and to have special time with just him - no Mommy-enforced schedules. I love that.
Here's the skinny on the scarf details, and my observations from staring at a paused movie on a big tv from about 6 inches away.
* Stripes - the Thick colored stripe appeared to be 2x the height of the Thin Medium Thin stripes combined.
* Once I got a gauge that I liked I decided that meant - Thick stripe = 24 rows, Thin stripes = 3 rows, Medium stripe = 6 rows.
* I also determined that there were 13 thick stripes, thus 12 sets of Thin/Medium.
* I cast on provisionally, and later Kitchener stitched the tube ends shut once all my yarn ends were woven in.
* I opted to carry the black yarn up behind the Medium stripe so as to avoid two more ends to weave in. In a similar manner I didn't cut the yellow yarn at all, just carried and joined as needed.
* I 'reset' my jog row back to the first stitch of the row with every set of Thin/Medium stripes. The thicker yellow stripe was so thick that you wouldn't see one single stitch missing from one single row. If you did? Well, then you're obviously invading personal bubble space! Or you're a knitter and was examining my work.
Hufflepuff Scarf project page (all yarn/needle info is there)
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