Warm Scarf with Fuzzy Tips

Free pattern (for personal use only).

After an unusually warm fall, it's been a very cold winter in Toronto this year. My friend Hauntfox, for whom I made the Fuzzy Headband I blogged about in November, came to me shivering in December and asked if I could make her a nice light but really warm scarf like the pink one I did back in the summer when I was learning how to use the Provocraft long looms... and no, I never did get around to writing that up.

Here’s a picture of the original scarf, produced following the instructions that come with the long loom set. Note that this is double-knitting, which produces a bulky but extremely lightweight flat panel that is reversible. I made one modification to the base pattern, because casting off according to the instructions resulted in one end’s being much tighter than the other. Luckily, the ladies from the Yahoo Frame_Knitting Group I belong to gave me a solution, which was to replace the beginning loops back on the loom and then cast them off with the yarn tail the way the finishing end had been cast off.

This new scarf is incredibly simple to make, but looks quite impressive because of the richness of the boa texture at each end.

Technique: French Knitting, also known as loom knitting or spooling

Materials:

• Provocraft Knifty Knitter 10" long loom
  
• Knifty Knitter Hook
  
• 1 ball Bernat Boa Cardinal eyelash yarn
  
• 1 ball Red Heart Ltd. Comfort Sport black worsted-weight yarn
  
• Tapestry needle

Instructions:

Step 1: Using a strand each of the boa and the worsted-weight yarn held together, cast on using the figure eight wrap method and loom for 3 inches.

Step 2: Cut the boa strand, leaving a 7-8 inch tail, which you will weave in later. Do not cut the worsted-weight yarn.

Step 3: Add a second strand of the worsted-weight yarn and continue looming (each loop will be composed of two strands), until the scarf is the height of the person for whom it is being knit.

Step 4: Cut one of the worsted-weight strands, leaving a 7-8 inch tail to weave in later.

Step 5: Add a strand of the boa, and holding it together with the uncut worsted-weight yarn, loom for 3 more inches.

Step 6: Cast off with a crochet hook.

Note that the use of the fuzzy boa yarn means that both ends look practically the same, so there is no need to re-cast-off the beginning the way it was with the pink scarf, which was knit with a single strand of worsted-weight yarn only.


© 2010-01-10 N0Nightowl