Knitting my Way to a Warmer Neck

Like pretty much everyone who takes up knitting, my very first actual knitted thing ended up being a scarf.

 

My mum spotted these sparkly balls of wool on sale for £2.99 in B&M (they were still in stock the other week) complete with free pattern on the inside of the band. Apparently all it would take is one ball, two needles and voila, you'd have yourself a fabulously cosy scarf in no time at all.

 

 

 

To be honest, when I first looked at the pattern, I did think I was looking at a completely different language. This is where YouTube came in handy, all you had to do was pop the name of the stitch into the search box and there's hundred of videos showing close-ups of fingers, needles and wool.

 

According to the label the pattern is called Ridged Feather Stitch. You'll need 1 pair of 8mm needles and 100g of wool, the stuff from B&M doesn't say what type of yarn it is but it's quite chunky. It's supposed to measure about 15cm wide and 127cm long but I assume it's just a case of the thicker the wool, the longer (and wider) the scarf? Is that how it works? You'd never guess I'm new to all this would you...

 

Cast on 17 stitches and K2 rows

1st row - K6, [yon, K1] 5 times, yon, K6

2nd row - K2, P to last 2 sts, K2

3rd row - K2, [P2tog] 3 times, P7, [P2tog] 3 times, K2

4th row - K

5th row - K

6th row - K2, P to last 2 sts, K2

These 6 rows are the pattern which you basically just repeat over and over (and over and over and over) until there's just enough yarn to K1 row and then cast off.

 

 

 

Now, I had to unravel and start the thing again about five times and even contemplated chucking it out the window on several occasions; once I’d managed to do a few repeats of the pattern though, I was starting to get the hang of it and then found it quite addictive.

 

 

 

It created a sort of holey ridged pattern which does look quite pretty but 100g of yarn only goes far enough to wrap around your neck once, not quite long enough to knot it or twist it or do anything else with it. Of course, I could have just carried on knitting with another ball of wool and made it twice as long but being a newbie knitter, that didn't even occur to me. Ah well, I certainly had good fun making it, definitely good practice and I've even worn it a few times as well!

 

 

 

What was your first knitting, crochet or craft project?