Finished the scarf!! I had to go on youtube to remind myself how to bind off and how to weave the ends in, but I did that without much of a problem. Youtube is great for that! The scarf is very long, but I wanted it to be able to be wrapped around twice with the ends tucked in, or else wrapped once with the tails hanging down. I was correct about the pattern. Due to the bulkiness and the crimp of the yarn, it's almost impossible to discern the pattern at all, so it looks great! Pic of finished product below! Now I will start a scarf for my daughter for Christmas!

K.

I found a pattern for an easy scarf. It was a free download for my kindle. I am working on it now, and have about 2 feet done! This is the pattern:


100 or more yds bulky yarn and size 10 needles

cast on 14 stitches
knit 4 rows
then start pattern:

row 1: knit 3, purl to last 3, knit 3
rows 2-6: knit

repeat pattern until not enough yarn to do another 6 rows

So, I bought a nice bulky weight yarn in dark blue with purple flecks. The yarn I got is not straight, it's kind of squiggly. Sorry, I don't know the term for it.

I had a problem learning to cast on. It took me about seven tries of ripping it out to get it right. Then I began the pattern. At some point in the first 3-4 rows I magically ended up with 15 stitches. No idea how that happened. I searched carefully in the part I'd done to find the error. I didn't find anything that looked like I'd picked up a stitch. So, I figured it won't matter much, since it's in the first few rows, to have picked up an extra stitch. So now I'm working with 15 stitches.

My other problem is that it's very hard for me to see the pattern when I look at the knitting I have done. If I look on the back side, I THINK I can see where the purled row is, but it is hard to count the rows from there. So, if I don't keep the count of what row I'm on in my head, I have to scrutinize it and make my best guess. I figure if it's that hard to discern the pattern, it probably won't matter if I am short a row or have an extra row in the pattern here and there.

So that's where I am now. I may use this pattern to make a second scarf after this one, or if I find another easy pattern that's different, I'll try that.

I did find some free patterns online, so I'll search those for good patterns. I would like to make a scarf for each of my 2 daughters and a hat for my son for Christmas. (my son is not a scarf person, but he does wear hats when it's cold)

Going to watch baseball game now and KNIT while I watch!

K.

I am going to teach myself to knit! I will use this blog to follow my progress from total novice to expert knitter. Maybe, once I have a body of entries here, it will be of help to someone else starting out. My mother taught me to knit when I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. That is, she taught me the knit stitch. That's all. I didn't make anything as a child except blocks of knitted nothings. When I was in my 20's I made a baby blanket for my niece. But I never finished it. It's somewhere, maybe in my attic, just about finished, but it needs to be finished off and I didn't know how to do that. Then, about 5 yrs ago, I knitted a fashion scarf with some kind of thready type yarn for my mother and gave it to her on her birthday. I have no idea if she even still has it, never mind ever wore it! The following year I knitted a scarf for my daughter, but that project is also stored someplace, un-finished. I didn't know how to make a fringe to finish that one off. If I find those 2 projects, I would like to finish them. In the meantime, I'll work on some more projects, using books and the internet (youtube is great for visuals!) to teach myself to knit!

K.