My Fancy Herringbone Scarf, Red for Valentine

Not really red for Valentine... it just so happened that the color combination was irresistible: two strands of 8/2 tencel solid Spice, which is nice, muted red, and one strand of the 8/2 tencel variegated Spice combo, which has spice, black, a shade of pink and brown...

Then I found an interesting textured stitch in my one and only Barbare G. Walker book, Charted Knitting Designs, bought in a secondhand bookshop just when I began my knitting hobby a few years back... the stitch looked a lot like that used in "My So-called Scarf," which I had wanted to try but was knida intimidated by the seemingly elaborate knitting and purling techniques.

The Fancy Herringbone stitch pattern was rather easy... alternate purl and knit rows with slip-stitching, yarn-over and psso... and produced a lovely, thick fabric which wasn't so thick since I knitted with 3 strands of laceweight yarn ons size 8 needles...

This scarf, I hope, will be my first ever scarf to be offered for sale, marking by debut as a professional hand-knitter. I'm thinking of calling my work, Handknit Dreams...

In view of the season, though, I'm nicknaming this my Valentine scarf. Unfortunately, because tencel is shiny, the pics I've taken have not been able to properly capture the spicy red-ness of the yarn combination.

These shots were more for showing off the Fancy H stitch rather than the color.


This one at left is closer to the actual color. The one at right is too orange (I just can't remember which light setting I used in my camera-phone so I won't use it ever again). Both shots were taken outdoors but one was during a bright sunny day (most likely the orangey shot).

The reverse side is just as pretty looking, although oddly circular vis-a-vis the angular "right side".


I'll soon take pics of my other tencel scarf, a plain garter stitch scarf in a luscious Blue Purple combo. It's done, just needs fringing...

Latest dreams on the needles

These days I have more energy for my knitting projects in general than for my bread-and-butter telecommute job. In fact, I've sort of set aside the purple square I was knitting, for charity, but I'm gonna get back to it when the Tanbark towel's done.

But will also finish my purple square for the Many Colors knit-along at knittinghelp.com, and knit another square, maybe also in Tanbark.

13th Rib Scarf

Basically, much as I love moss stitch, I wanted something to break the monotony.

And so, I decided to do something different with the 13th row. To explain the pattern name, it means the 13th row is a rib stitch, where the previous row's knit stitches are purled, and the purls are knitted.

Cast on an even number of stitches.



Version 1, British Moss Stitch (aka Seed Stitch):

Row 1: Knit 1, Purl 1
Row 2: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 for Rows 3 to 12:
Rows 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 -- as Row 1
Rows 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12-- as Row 2

Row 13: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeats Rows 1 to 13 until desired length:

Rows 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 -- as Row 1
Rows 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 -- as Row 2
Row 26: As Row 13

And so on

Sorry, for now this is my only available pic of a 13th rib scarf pattern, using Filati FF Sailor cotton yarn, Po River colorway. Notice the slight stripe effect of the 13th row.

I'll take more and better pics of the other scarves in this pattern.






Version 2, American Moss Stitch (aka Double Moss Stitch):

Rows 1 and 2: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 3 and 4: Purl 1, Knit 1
Rows 5 and 6: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 7 and 8: Purl 1, Knit 1
Rows 9 and 10: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 11 and 12: Purl 1, Knit 1

Row 13: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeat Rows 1 to 13 until desired length.

Version 2's striping is subtle too and this pattern works best with solid yarns... I think. Haven't tried it with variegated yarns.


Here's a link about the 2 types of Moss Stitch.

Let the river flow

Correction: The yarn to the left is not Filatura di Crossa yarn, as I had posted earlier, but Filati Italian Collection yarn... got it from elann.com

I decided to knit it on its own, rather than match it with the Camila "chamois" yellow yarn, since the orange/yellow bits in the colorway already brighten up the rest of the yarn... as intended. This makes me curious to see the Italian place that this colorway was named after, Po River.

I remember now why I chose this colorway. I wanted something in blue, to tone down the orange and maroon yarns ... yet I also wanted to have something in orange bits (his favorite color). So there... it was rather hard to choose the colorway. I loved their color combos... trust the Italians for having good taste even in matching colors. I'm sure it's in their genes...

I'll soon post a pic of this scarf-in-progress. As usual, seed stitch played out better than garter. I love how it's turning out.

Only problems I've had with Filati sailor: splitty, and the usual challenges of 100% cotton yarn, making me kiss my metal needles for making the work easy.

Unfortunately, I won't get to buy anymore Filati Sailor yarn, much as I love their other color choices. After buying my elann.com stash, I've opted to buy only nature-friendly yarn, so that means sticking to organic cotton... and tencel, and tussah silk, mostly.