Broadbean scarf instructions

I was wearing the broadbean scarf again yesterday and it still gets commented on a lot. Mostly it's knitters who spot it, ask me if I made it and then ask me how to do it.

It's preposterously easy, and since lots of people have asked, here are some instructions for keen beginners. Experienced knitters will know what to do. 

The things you'll need to know how to do are cast on, knit, and cast off. That is all. If you don't know how to do any of these things, I suggest you start with Google.

Oh, you'll also need a pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool. I used a ball of DK wool (*ahem* not literally wool - it was acrylic) that was 100g and 290m long, and 4mm needles. DK is a way of describing how thick the yarn is - fatter than 4-ply but thinner than Aran weight, which is a bit thinner than Chunky.  You can use whatever you like, but use the needle size suggested on the label, and remember that a chunkier yarn won't go as far so your scarf will be shorter. 

If you're googling cast on methods, look for a method called 'knitting on'. 

OK, so here's more or less what I did. 

Row 1. Cast on about 25 stitches. This will be the length of your broadbean. 

Row 2. Knit. 

Row 3. Knit.

Row 4. Knit. 

Row 5. Knit. 

Row 6. Knit. 

Row 7. Knit.

Row 8. Cast off 20 stitches, leaving 5 on the needle. This is the end of your first broadbean. 

Row 9. Cast on 20 stitches until you have 25 stitches on the needle, including the 5 you didn't cast off. This is the beginning of your second broadbean. 

Repeat rows 2 - 9 until you run out of wool. 

Final row. Cast off all stitches. Leave a 5 or 6 inch tail of yarn at the end. 

Finishing: Use a darning needle to weave the beginning and end of the yarn into the scarf. This means basically sew it in and out along the knitting so you can't see it. 

Now to really make this scarf your own, you can change the stitch count and row count to make something completely different. If you start with 25 stitches and cast off 5, and then cast on 5, you'll make something that's got more of a wavy edge than beans. If you double the number of knit rows between cast ons and cast offs, you'll get something that probably looks a bit more like a row of flags. Maybe. 

If you try it, let me know - I'd love to see what this same basic instruction would look like with different yarns and different numbers of stitches and rows! 

Broadbeans mk II

Home-made Christmas presents? Only one, and that was this: 

Recognise it? It's the broadbean scarf, mk II. Actually I've been calling this version the neighbour scarf. Because it's in devil-red, and the numbers to remember while knitting it were 667 (6 stitches join the beans together, the beans are 26 stitches long and 7 rows wide). 

You wouldn't believe how many comments I've had on the broadbeans - and a few requests, but it is quite boring to make, in all honesty, so I can't see myself making another one unless someone really reeeeeeeeeeeeeally wants one.  

I would have made more Christmas presents (despite what I've said about gifting hand-made things), but it turns out that I would have needed to think about it in about September, and I wasn't that organised. 

Adventures in 4-ply

For my next project, I'm using these:

The book is Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters, and the yarn is Angora 4-ply from Orkney. 

4 ply angora turns out to be easily broken and not so easily unravelled. Here is the beginning of my tension swatch: 

As the yarn had already broken twice by this point (and also it's a scarf, so tension isn't a massive issue) I decided to ditch the tension swatch and get stuck right in. 

Although it's actually a simple garter-stitch scarf with just a bit of shaping, it has been difficult! Partly self-inflicted, admittedly, as the pattern wanted me to use 3 needles and I didn't want to spend the £2.50 on a second pair of needles the same size, so I tried to do it using a stitch holder. 

Big mistake. 

Anyway, I invested the extra £2.50 and a lot of time (no really, a lot) unravelling, swearing and fixing and now the project is moving along nicely in the way it would have done if only I'd have done it properly in the first place. 

Knitted shoes!

OMG I just have to upload a picture of my amazing tiger shoes - they're knitted! And they've got whiskers and ears and everything! I love them so much it almost overrides the pain of walking in them... 

On circular needles

I've noticed that a lot of US knitting patterns seems to use circular needles. Like, a LOT. One of the things people seem to like about knitting garments in the round is that there's hardly any finishing involved - no side-seams to stitch up or anything. 

On the other hand, it kind of feels a bit cheaty to knit in the round to avoid finishing. I don't really know why. I just seem to have conceived a distate for circular-needle-knitting. It's mainly to do with not wanting to end up buying more and more equipment - circular needles don't only have a gauge but a length (they could be 40cm, 60cm, 80cm, 100cm) so you could end up with zillions of needles. This pattern for example wants two lengths of 3.5mm gauge needles. Or look at this tank top. It's great (although well beyond my capabilities - intarsia and fairisle? I don't think so) but uses two lengths of circular needles in the same gauge again, plus another one. And it's not even to avoid finishing, as front and back are separate pieces put together with side seams and shoulder seams. 

Either I will have to start buying more and more circular needles (which are an absolute bastard to store incidentally) or I will have to resign myself to not trying any of the really cool free patterns on US sites. 

What's wrong with straight needles anyway? 

Pixie hat

This funny little thing is a hat - I had two balls of Noro Spring Thaw which were reduced in John Lewis so I couldn't resist. It was made from 7 long oval panels, knitted using lots of increases and decreases. It took a bit of concentration, but was quite straightforward. Once I had seven panels, I seamed them on the inside with a crochet slip stitch, which was nice and simple, although I think I should maybe have seamed it on the outside side with double crochet in a contrast colour, which would have made more of the panel construction. 

When I finally tried on the finished item, I realised the panels were too short and it made for a very strange, skull-cap kind of fit. I did knit a tension gauge swatch, but didn't really take a lot of notice of the results. There's a lesson in that, probably. Anyway, to make it a bit longer I crocheted a double-triple border all around the edge, which improves things, but I still don't actually like it that much. I'd rip it out, except that I'll end up with 8 short bits of yarn, which isn't very inspiring. A bit of a waste of one and a quarter balls of bargain Noro, all in all. 

Future projects

Things that I would like to learn to do in knitting: 

Lacy knitting:

Cables:

Entrelac:

I haven't even completed a garment yet, so I don't think I'll be doing any of these things soon, and besides which I'm working on a secret project at the moment, so everything else will just have to join the queue.

Learn mattress stitch. Really.

So I got a new acrylic cheapo yarn in the pound shop, this time at £2.50 a ball. (I know, a bit of an investment.) 

And as the weather has turned autumnal I decided to use it for long wristwarmers. Didn't take long - a couple of evenings each hand. This is the result, and I like them. I shaped them into the wrist slightly with k2tog, and then out again for the hand a bit with m1, so they fit quite snugly. 

In fact today I finished them,  and in order to wear them for the first time - to the supermarket - I went and changed three times to find an outfit that worked around the slightly garish pink shade. (Usually it only takes me two changes of clothes to decide what to wear to Sainsbury's (one in the case of Tesco's))

I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, because first I spent a an hour finishing them this morning (whilst watching Antiques Roadshow). There's a reason it took so long. Unfortunately I decided to put into practice this fabled 'mattress stitch' for the seam. The reason this was unfortunate was that I only decided to use it when I got to the second one, not the first. 

Once I had done this mattress stitch seam I realised what everyone had been going on about. Turns out that it's makes a really neat almost-invisible seam. As you can see at the top of this picture. Compare with the bottom, which is the hand I finished first, with just an any-old-sewn-up-seam. Oops. 

Obviously I then had to unpick the first crappy seam and re-do it properly with mattress stitch. Eventually I had a pair, both neatly seamed with mattress stitch. Nice. 

Moral of the story: believe what all the books and websites say about mattress stitch. It really is easy, and it really is worth learning. And a good finish really does make all the difference to a project. 

Now I just need to decide whether to go for a matching hat or a matching scarf. 

Bye bye, little woollies

The little woolly innocent hats being sent off into the wide world.

Finally, something useful!

From Mazz's pattern in The Guardian's Rebel Knitter's Guide.

You know Mazz... the one who made the knitted adipose monsters, which the Beeb then went out-of-proportion mental about.

Anyway, I modified it because I was pretty sure my ball of yarn was shorter than her pattern, so I added in a stripe of different yarn. The orange crochet flower is courtesy of Nancia, and was useful to cover up the mysterious hole that keeps appearing every now and then in my knitting.

As it's in garter stitch, it's a small bag that stretches out ma-hoo-sive and is therefore perfect for shopping for things like onions, apples and asparagus. Not so good for Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers as the box sticks out funny and it's really obvious that you've been and bought junk food.

In the meantime...

The laptop cover is nearly finished, but I'm waiting to get hold of a crochet needle so that I can close the edges. In the meantime, here are photos of the much-hyped bikini. It's fantastic!

I have to admit to no intention of wearing it. Apart from anything, I've no idea how the yarn would react in water. Experienced knitted-swimwear wearer Jennifer tells me that sagginess is certain.

The strings are simply crochet chains, and the triangles are single-crocheted onto the chain. This was before I learnt how to crochet though so there's a twist at the bottom of one of the triangles. Since I'm not wearing it though, no need to do-over. Result!

First ever project

I'm posting pictures of this, my first ever project, for the sake of posterity. Using three balls of chunky yarn from the remnant bin in John Lewis (I can't remember what it was but it had cashmere in it and is lovely and soft) I knitted a scarf in single rib, with some random thick needles that I think might be 7.5mm.

Although the yarn is great, in single rib it was very dense. It also didn't go as long as I wanted because it was a rib, and shrunk up together. And finally, I made a few mistakes - adding and losing stitches so it got wider, as well as totally bodging up starting a new ball. Twice.

Anyway, past tense because I've ripped it down and re-used the yarn for a new project. I decided the density of the single rib in this yarn was ideal protection for a laptop, so I've started a laptop cover.

Aufwiedersehn!

Broadbean scarf

The broadbean scarf has received rave reviews, both from the optician this morning and the woman in the pound shop this afternoon, so I think it's safe to say that it's officially A Success.

I ought to point out that it wasn't originally intended to look like broad beans, but I'm happy with the way it has turned out.

All the casting on and casting off meant that it took the longest time to make. Although I speeded up as I got better at this knitting thing, each bean took about 1 hour at the beginning, reduced to perhaps 40 mins per bean at the end.

On the other hand, skinny £1-a-ball acrylic yarn goes a long way, so you can see how long the scarf is, from a single ball.

Finished Cost:
yarn - £1
4mm needles - £1.50
time - 54 beans @ 45 mins each - 40 hours (ouch, next time remind me not to do that calculation)

Charity smoothie hat knit

Whilst feeding my Crafty Crafty habit I read about the Innocent Smoothie 'Big Knit 2008' and immediately spotted a way to make myself feel virtuous for almost no effort. Besides, the knitted bikini is finished, I've still got tons of £1-a-ball yarn left, it's raining and Brief Encounter is on the TV.

First try was this:
I'm really quite pleased with it, despite a couple of failings. I read the pattern wrong - instead of going left-to-right then right-to-left on alternate rows, I went right-to-left on all the rows, which is why the seeds aren't offset enough. Not disastrous, but stupid. Oh and some of the seed stitches are quite ugly, possibly because of the tension. I think the i-cord stalk is a success, and I like the technique, although it would be better on double-ended needles instead of transferring the stitches from the right needle to the left.

I liked the technique so much that I used it again for my 2nd try:
This has a lot less stretch, I think because of the colour change. And if you look carefully you can see where I started decreasing with k2tog and forgot to think about the colour changes, so the stripes stop spiralling upwards. Minor issue though.

And the third (this is my fave) in plain stocking stitch and embroidery:









My last go was a standard beanie, with stripes of moss stitch. It's like a miniature real-life beanie, and I think it would be really good pattern for a man's hat. Maybe not in red acrylic yarn.