New Scarf: Lace ZigZag

As you can probably tell from other posts, I like to knit.  For me it is relaxing and a good way to feel productive during football season because I can work on it while we watch the game.

In the past year or so I joined Ravelry.com which is a social network for knitters and crocheters.  Recently I found myself browsing page after page of projects I'd love to try.  Fortunately you can add the patterns you find to a queue or favorites list to come back to.  Since I'm not in the mood to take on another big project right now (i.e. my blanket), I decided to knit a scarf or two then attempt mittens or a hat for myself.

The first scarf I decided to work on used yarn I already had from making J's nephew's blanket. I had a lot of leftover yarn but I decided to use the Simply Soft Berry Blue for this one.  The pattern is Zigzag Lace Scarf by Tamara Stone-Snyder.  My mom liked it so I decided to give it to her when it was complete.  The pattern has stitches I've never done before and calls for sewing two individual pieces together, but after youtubing some videos on how to do them I felt confident in my skills.

What the pattern looks like

Temporarily putting the one half of the scarf on a piece of yarn while I knit the other half.

Now that both halves are done I've place the stitches back on the empty needle.

Using a youtube video I taught myself to graft the two halves together.  You can barely see where the stitches went!

My only issue with this scarf (and most scarves that I make) is that it rolls inward.  I was told blocking would solve this problem, but unfortunately it went right bak to rolling when I unpinned it.  I've also been told that this means I knit too tightly, but I can not seem to get it to stop even when I knit loosely.

I'm a pretty fast knitter and once I start a project I like to work on it during my free time until I'm finished so this scarf took me four days to complete (my break at work and after work for a few hours) plus one additional day to block and wait for it to dry.  I still think it wouldn't take too long for a more novice knitter to complete though.

The pattern can be found at the link earlier in this post and is a free download.  I highly recommend it for someone looking to increase the difficulty of their knitting from beginning to intermediate because once you learn the stitches you'll be able to do so many other 'lace' looking scarves!!