If you like the look of the Sophie Scarf, then give this free pattern for The Simple Thing by Melina Brell a try.
I ended up cannibalizing the yarn and needles from my attempt to make the Slice of Goodness Wrap by Purl Soho to make this project. I really, really wanted to finish Slice of Goodness, but the process was going to be very lengthy, and even though I made it to around halfway through, I lost the will to go on.
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| Gauge shot |
I had been aware of the Sophie Scarf design for a while, but that design by itself didn't intrigue me, mainly because I don't like short scarves. I do like i-cord edges and garter stitch, however. So when the Sophie Hood version was released, that's when I started getting interested.
So my plan is to see if I can approximate the hooded version of this scarf by using The Simple Thing as my starting point.
HeathlandKnits has a good video tutorial on YouTube that walks you through the setup process for The Simple Thing scarf, and I highly recommend that you watch that video when casting on. There is also a video showing how to graft the ends together when finishing the scarf. Both of the video links included in the PDF of the pattern appear to be broken, so that's why I'm sharing the links with you here. It took me a bit of clicking around to find them.
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| Part 1 done |
Because I prefer my scarves on the longer side, I'm making this using a 6-row repeat instead of the basic 4-row repeat suggested in the pattern. Whatever length you prefer for your pattern repeat, definitely use a stitch marker that opens/closes as a progress keeper! This almost becomes a mindless knit with the help of a progress keeper clipped to your project.
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| Part 2 starts with a buttonhole |
I originally planned to have the scarf part be at least 30 to 36 inches long and around 10 inches wide on each side before starting on the hood part. The way I'm visualizing this coming together, I'll have to knit each scarf side before joining them together to knit the hood. I haven't done that sort of thing before, so we'll see if it works. 🤞
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| Parts 1 and 2 complete |
Part 1 ended up being about 27 inches long by 9.5 inches wide at widest end, or 50 stitches (not counting i-cord stitches) by 296 rows. I started part 2 by making a buttonhole at the tip, which required it to be a bit wider than the tip of part 1, so I knitted a few rows without increasing part 2 until the width at that length was about the same as on part 1, and then I continued the same increasing pattern (every 6 rows) as on part 1 until achieving the same overall width and length.
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| Before grafting the i-cord edging |
After joining the two sides to begin the hood (and adding stitches along the i-cords at the back of the neck for a comfortable fit), I ended up with 120 stitches on the needle, not counting the i-cord stitches on each edge of the work. This will give me a hood with enough depth to comfortably fit over my hair, which I usually wear up in a messy bun style.
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| Start of part 3 |
There is a Sophie Hood video tutorial that shows some key techniques for that pattern, and in watching that video, it's clear that I'm using a different method to knit the hood for my project. They knit the hood flat (in line with the scarf) and have a seam to join the entirety of the sides of the hood at the back; I'm also knitting my hood flat, but I'm doing mine seamlessly (bottom up) except for where the top edge will be grafted.
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| Rescue line added before starting hood decreases |
I debated for a while how to work the top of the hood, meaning whether I would attempt to make the back part slightly shaped/rounded with short rows or decreases. Finally, I found this video tutorial by Yuha Knitting that shows an easy-to-understand method for making decreases to help make the back of a hood knitted like mine a bit rounded, so it looks less pointy on the wearer's head. I think I'll try doing mine that way. (I could also envision a method of working short rows on either side of the center of the back of the hood to shape the crown that way, but I just didn't want to work that hard, so I'm glad I found the technique by Yuha Knitting!)
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| Hood complete with crown decreases |
To prepare for the decreases, I added a marker to show where the center of the back of the hood was, and I will make the hood decreases on either side of that marker. I also added a marker to show when I was working a right-side row, since I intended to work decreases only on the right side of the work. Lastly, I added a rescue line in the last row before starting to decrease, just in case I wasn't happy with how the decreasing section was going. It would be easy to rip back and start the section again if needed. 😂 The decrease before the marker will be a left-leaning decrease (SSK), and the decrease after the marker will be a right-leaning decrease (K2tog).
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| Hood complete with top seam closed |
I calculated that I wanted to decrease the crown of the hood by about 40 stitches (about one-third of the hood's total width), which, decreasing 2 stitches on each right-side row, would require 40 rows to achieve. (With decreases worked only on right-side rows, every decreasing row is followed by a non-decreasing row on the wrong side, so 20 decreasing rows plus 20 non-decreasing rows equals 40 rows total.) Based on my estimated gauge, those 40 rows would add about 3.5 inches of height to the hood. And since I wanted the total height of my hood to be about 13-14 inches (measuring from the top of my shoulder to the crown of my head), that meant that I should knit about 10 inches of hood before starting the decreasing rows.
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| Time to add a button |
I also found a nice tutorial by Lindsey of the Yarina blog hosted by Custom Yarn that shows how to join the top of a hood knitted in garter stitch like mine using a 3-needle bind-off technique that blends invisibly into the established garter stitch. Woo-hoo! I'm going to try doing that, too.
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| Button info |
