Montie's scarf, Chapter 2

I made Montie's first scarf in 2009, which was in my days Before Ravelry (I joined Ravelry on Dec. 1, 2010), so I don't have a Ravelry project page for it. Even so, Montie's scarf was based on my free pattern for Knitted School Scarf based on Harry Potter Hogwarts House Colors, which also existed in my days Before Ravelry. But Montie being Montie, he wanted to put his OWN spin on his scarf, so his request was that I make the stripe sections on each end with three bands of contrasting color while the middle sections have the usual stripe sections with two contrasting bands. He also wanted the contrast stripes to be a bit wider than in the original pattern.

Fast-forward after 11 years of wear and tear and Montie's original scarf (on the left in the above photo) was starting to look a bit ratty with woven ends popping out of place. (This is the one thing I hate about knitting vs. crochet - it's so much easier to keep ends buried in crochet but harder to keep them hidden away in knitting.) I wanted to make a new one for him with the same colors and stripe pattern, except I wanted the new one to be made in a tubular knit style (where the ends can be totally hidden inside!!). You can see the ends poking out of Montie's original scarf in the photo below.

Fortunately Caron still makes the same Dark Country Blue and Sunshine yellow colorways that I used 11 years ago to make the original scarf, so the new one will look nearly identical.

The only difficulty with wanting to reknit another scarf for Montie is how much knitting hurts my hands anymore. So I thought the Sentro knitting machine might be able to help me with this project. I know there are videos on YouTube (like this one and this one, for example) for how to make jogless color changes on the knitting machine, but I haven't figured that technique out yet so I worked this scarf with standard/stepped color changes. I figure I can always make Montie another scarf later when my knitting machine skills are more advanced. 😆

On my first attempt to make the new scarf with the knitting machine I followed the same row counts from the written pattern: I cast on several rows with a waste yarn before starting the first scarf row in blue. I worked a half-height block of 24 rows then a three-stripe section (4 rows in yellow / 6 rows in blue / 4 rows yellow / 6 rows blue / 4 rows yellow). Next a full-height block of 48 rows in blue. Then a two-stripe section (4 rows yellow / 6 rows blue / 4 rows yellow). Then alternated a full-height block in blue followed by a two-stripe section three more times. One more full-height block in blue followed by a three-stripe section and ending with a half-height block in blue. To finish, secure all color changes with knots on the inside of the tube; flat-close the ends of the tube; and secure any remaining ends inside the tube. Scarf is 454 rows total.

Unfortunately at this gauge the 454 rows turned out a scarf that was about 114 inches long, or nearly 9.5 feet. LOL!!! Montie is about 74 inches tall, sooooo ... this scarf is about 3.5 feet too long for him. Bah-ha-ha!

Amazingly, it only took about 4 hours to knit that length on the machine. (And the only reason it took that long was because I was working slowly to be careful with all the color changes and to keep a close eye on it for dropped stitches because this Sentro tries to drop stitches fairly often.) But clearly I was going to have to try again to get the scarf to a more manageable length. The machine produced a fabric of about 4 rows per inch, so to get a finished scarf of a length that's in the ballpark of 74 inches or so I was going to have to fit all the stripes into roughly 300 rows (300/4=75 inches).

My brain doesn't like to math very much, so it took me a couple of days of mulling to come up with a new set of row counts to rework the scarf on the knitting machine. My new plan is to start with a half-height block in blue (16 rows); then a three-stripe section of 2 yellow, 4 blue, 2 yellow, 4 blue, 2 yellow (14 rows); then a full block in blue (32 rows); then a two-stripe section of 2 yellow, 4 blue, 2 yellow (8 rows); [repeat the full block/two-stripes section four more times] (160 rows); one more full block (32 rows); a three-stripe section (14 rows); and lastly a half-block (16 rows). This adds up to 292 rows, which should result in a scarf that's close to 74 inches long.

It took about 2.5 hours to knit the scarf the second time. There is one spot when I was about 3/4 of the way through where I dropped a stitch and didn't see it until a few rows later when the big run opened up. I was about to scream and throw everything into my "to work on again later" pile, but I watched two videos that show how to fix a dropped stitch, this one and this one. I used the crochet hook method in the second video, but you can see in my photo that the fix turned out a little funky. Oh well - this is literally only my second knitting machine project, so I'm not going to freak out over a minor imperfection.

When knitters go baa-a-a-ad

My friend Christine shared this funny with me. But shouldn't it say "When knitters go baa-a-a-ad"? 😂

My first machine-knit infinity scarf / cowl

I’m so excited! After lurking for months on various machine knitting Facebook groups and absorbing lots of helpful wisdom and tips, I finally took the plunge and bought my first knitting machine, a Sentro 40. 

I selected the 40-pin machine as my entry point into the machine knitting world because it was affordably priced, and I think its size is a good compromise between the biggest machines and the tiny machines. I’m also glad I spent months studying the experiences of others via the Facebook groups and also YouTube because that knowledge made it possible for me to hit the ground running (or if not running then at least walking) rather than to have to stumble through the learning curve that these machines invariably have.

My Sentro arrived yesterday, so as soon as I got off from work I assembled the pieces (i.e., put the legs on) and started cranking through one of the little sample balls of yarn that came with it. I already knew the trick for how to cast on because of my earlier research. 😊 On that first run-through I wasn’t paying attention to whether stitches were dropping (many of them did); I was just trying it out and having fun.

 

This infinity scarf (or cowl if worn double-wrapped) is the second thing I did with my Sentro. I cast on with the gray yarn, but I decided later that it would have been smarter to have cast on with waste yarn because that would give a neater starting edge. Mental note for next time. 😉 Jojo Juju (one of the goddesses of machine knitting on YouTube) recommends about 4-6 rows of waste yarn at the beginning and end of most projects. 

I was a lot more careful about watching for dropped stitches this time. I don’t have enough experience yet to say for sure whether the Sentro was dropping so many stitches because of the yarn I was using, or because of the way I was cranking it (my tension or whatever), or because that’s just a quirk of the Sentro. Time will tell. But even having to stop several times on just about every row to pick up dropped stitches (this video shows one method for how to correct it), it literally took less than two hours of work TOTAL from start to finish to whip out this entire project, which used all of a 315-yard skein of Caron Simply Soft. TWO. HOURS. Including the finishing work. These machines are basically miraculous.

I finished and joined the edges with the faux turban twist knot join used in all those trendy turban head-wrap patterns, like this one. The full skein of yarn yielded a tubular scarf that’s about 6 inches wide (laid flat) by about 60 inches long. I didn’t count how many rows that is (the 40-pin Sentro doesn't come with a row counter); I just used the full skein of yarn.

Which brings me to another, much more personal point about why I wanted to try working with a knitting machine: Chronic joint pain in my hands and arms has gotten bad enough over time that it has become nearly impossible for me to finish any yarncraft projects anymore. I would start a project, work on it for a couple of days, and then have to set it aside for several weeks while I waited for my hands and arms to recover before I could even think about continuing. As you can imagine, this makes for really slow going. But I think having a tool like this knitting machine will make it possible for me to keep creating, which is what I want to do, despite my disability.

Dice bag for LadyU

This is the first thread project I've attempted (other than some earrings many years ago). I couldn't find my thread-size hooks (except for a 1mm hook that would be too small) when I wanted to start working on this (I really need to take some time to get my craft supplies organized!!) so I used the smallest hook from my standard Clover ergonomic set — 2.75mm — which turned out fine for my needs. I tend to crochet tightly anyway and so I'm used to having to go up in hook size for most patterns. Gauge really isn't an issue for this project since it's a bag. This is made with Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread in size 10, color black. The green scales are 0.35-inch anodized aluminum tags from TheRingLord.com.

Besides using a different hook size I deviated from the written pattern in a few other (minor) ways. First I made a double-thick base as described in Jessie Alameda's Dragonscale Dice Bag tutorial. Second I didn't string all the scales onto the thread before starting to work; I crocheted them in place one by one by using my 1mm hook to pull the thread through the opening of each scale when working the scale SC. Third I worked only four rows of DC above the scales before working the row of loops for the drawstring; I felt like the bag was tall enough at that point. Fourth I worked two rows of SC above the drawstring loops.

My biggest challenge for finishing this was figuring out which kind of cord to use as the drawstring. I didn't want to use thread chains (too bumpy to operate smoothly) ... I tried to knit some i-cord using the thread and 2.25mm needles, but that was taking forever and really hurting my hands ... I thought about making some monk's cord using the thread (there are several tutorials for this on YouTube; I've done it before and it isn't hard to do) but I just wasn't feeling it ... so then I went to Walmart to see if they had anything suitable there in the crafts section, but the only black cording they had was cotton and waaay too thick at 3/16-inch. I finally found some 2mm black satin cording at Amazon.

Attempt at i-cord 2.25mm needles

Bag with 3/16-inch cord as drawstring (ugh)

I cut two 20-inch pieces of cord and wove them through the loops at the top of the bag so that the ends came out on opposite sides for cinching the top closed. I tied an overhand knot on each pair of ends at a position to allow the bag to be fully open. Then I strung one bead on each tail, knotting the cord on each side of each bead to hold it in place.

 

I love how this turned out and hope LadyU feels the same way when she receives it. 😊