This is my first test knit and I could not be happier with how smoothly it went. It was a lovely scarf to knit. The pattern is from Sleepy Dragon Workshop and the designer, Karen Moffett, was extremely helpful and very quick to respond to questions and comments.
The pattern was designed in lace weight yarn, but they wanted to have it tested in a variety of weights. I chose to do it in a worsted weight that I had in my stash. I used about 185 yards of the yarn and my scarf is pretty long. After blocking it came out to 7" x 75".
The scarf is knit in two pieces and then grafted together in the back with the kitchener stitch. This allowed the pattern to be the correct direction on both sides of the scarf. I think that the spot where they're grafted together looks pretty neat too.
It starts with a garter tab cast on, which was new for me. However, the pattern included a link to a fantastic video that made it very easy to pick up. The lace pattern is an eight row repeat and it was pretty easy to get a handle on it. I ended up doing 16 repeats of pattern for each side. I probably could have gotten away with three or four fewer repeats and still had a good length.
I knit both sides of the scarf at the same time. This assured that they would be the same length. Also, I'm terrible at finishing one piece of something and then forgetting the other piece. It may not have actually gone any faster, but it felt like it!
The lace pattern looks nice on the needles, but it opened up beautifully once I blocked it. I wet blocked it and I had to work it a bit to get it into shape. It wanted to pull vertically so it took some work to get it stretched out more horizonally to showcase the lace.
I got The Bug to model it for me. She really liked it too.
I think I’m going to try doing this as a cowl with some super bulky yarn next. I had done a swatch in that and it was HUGE, but I didn't have enough to do the whole scarf.
Things I learned from this project:
- I did the garter tab cast on for the first time. I've heard some tough things about this, but I got the hang of it pretty easily.
- Two at a time, or both sides at once is a good thing for me. I don't know how well I would have done if I had knit the pieces separately.
- I feel like I got a much better handle on the kitchener stitch with the project. I've used it before, but I never felt like it was as good as it could have been.
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