Lesson 2: Length, Width, Increase and Decrease Methods.

Today’s design lessons includes to topics:

1. Deciding dimensions so your scarf “fits”.
2. Selecting the increase/decrease method.

Make your scarf “fit”.

I bet you rarely think of a scarf “fitting” or “not fitting”. After all, it’s not as if these are labeled by size in the store!

That said, you also know that scarves can be “too long”, “too short” , “too wide” or “too narrow”. Which is which depends on what sort of “neck thingie” you want to knit. If your into really long wide scarves, of coures you can make yours as long as Dr. Who’s which is looks to be three or four times body length. Below center, I am modeling a 6′ long, 4″ wide scarf. (It’s about 5′ long, between the ‘leaves’ that pull through the buttonholes.) My brother-in-law David is modeling a XX long, 6″ wide scarf.

Choosing the length and width for your scarf.

So what length do you want? Look at the image to the right. The key dimension is the length “N” for the “neck wrap” part of the scarf. We also need to select the width “w”. Later one, we can worry about the lenght of the leaves “L”.

So, how long should the length “N” be?

1. Using the ascot shape, you could pick a novelty yarn, knit a scarf with the neck wrap just equal to your neck diameter, make the neck wrap 3″ wide, pull the leaves through the buttonhole. You could wear this indoors and spice up your workday outfit. For this scarf, the value of N will be close to 14″ or 15″ for most women. Larger will droop a bit; smaller will choke you. The check, wrap a measuring tape around your neck. The value of width W=3″ or so.
2. You can also pick a thick chunky yarn, knit a medium length, W=6″ wide scarf for your favorite guy. This width will rise up and fold slightly– sort of like a generous turtleneck. If you are making it this large, I recommend an N=18″ length for the neck wrap part of the scarf. If it’s shorter, the 6″ wide scarf may feel constricting
3. You can pick a fluid fuzzy yarn, make a 6 foot long, 4″ wide scarf to wrap around your neck once, leaving room to fill in the opening of your coat. I find 4″ is just shorter than most people’s necks, so it keeps your full neck warm without rising too high or low over the neck. My scarf is 4″ wide and N=5 ft.

So, as you can see, we have many choices. If you are desinging, you are the one who chooses!

Selecting increases and decreases

In Lesson 1, we decided to organize our work by knitting from tip to tip. We also know that we will need to knit the two leaves — one at each end of the scarf. These leaves terminate in “points” making it easy to slide one leaf through a buttonhole, holding the scarf in place.

Looking at the shape of the leaves we can see we will cast on at the point of the first leaf and then increase stitches to widen it. For the second leaf we will need to decrease stitches. Ultimately, the charted directions will look like those shown below:

These two images above represent directions for the very first few rows an very last few rows of the scarf. If you don’t know how to read charts, don’t worry too much yet. The main thing to notice is that the grey area is “no stitch”. So, the area in between represents stitches of some sort or another. What you can see is that for one case, you start with 1 stitch at the bottom of the chart, and gradually, you have more stitches. In the other case, grey “no stitch area” surrounds an upward pointing triangle. You will decrease for that leaf.

Notice that in the image on the left (for the cast on) I have indicated the symbol “ML” (make 1 left), “MR” (make 1 right); these are increases. In the image on the right, I show “/” and “\”; these represent k2tog and ssl (slip-slip-knit); these are decreases.

We’ll now think about why I picked those types of increases and decreases.

There are zillion ways to increase and decrease; each method has a different decorative effect. Some methods of increasing involve yarnovers and leave little holes. Some methods like “knit, purl into 1 stitch” are pretty inconspicuous. Some methods like “M1R” and “M1L” create a slanting looking stitch. Also, you can increase or decrease at the edge of the work, or you can increase or decrease a few stitches away from the edge.

Each choice affects the way the “leaves” look near their outer edges.

Now, stop a minute: Remember that when we selected the “tip-to-tip” organization for knitting the scarf, we decided to increase for one leaf and decrease for the other leaf. If you picked a smooth yarn, these increase and decreases will likely be visible when you wear the scarf.

I bet you want the increases and decreases to look the similar on both leaves, right?

Now, consider the many zillions of ways to increase. Suppose you pick “yarn over”, knitting into the arn over on the next row. That method will a series of holes on the edge of the ‘cast on’ leaf. That’s very pretty–but now try to find a decrease method that creates holes. . . Nope. You can’t.

It turns out that if you want the two ends of the scarf to be similar, you can’t pick yarn over as the method to increase.

It turns out that if you want your two ends to look similar, it’s best to first think about the decreases first and then pick increases that look similar. If you look up methods, you will discover that the two most common decreases are “ssk and k2tog”. The “ssk” (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, knit two tog.) creates a left leaning decrease; these generally look nice near the right hand side of decreasing areas. So, I will use it there.

In the knitting chart to the right, this decrease in indicated by a left leaning line, as “\”. On the left hand side, we will use “k2tog” which results in a right leaning decrease, it’s indicated b a “/” in the image.

So, next, we are going to hunt for the simplest possible right and left leaning increases. These are the “MR” and “ML” (i.e. Make 1 right and Make 1 Left). Those are indicated with “MR” and “ML” in the chart. They will resemble a lot like “/” and “\” when you work these– though the match won’t be perfect.

Notice, when I created my chart, I made a design decision for you without explaining why: We are going to increase and decrease 1 stitch away from the edge. This permits the “pointiest” of leaves. If you want to do something else, we’ll discuss that in comments.

Today’s Summary

We’ve discussed selecting your scarf length and width. For ‘homework’ I suggest you go to your clost (or the store) with a tape measure and check out the length and width of a number of scarves; try each on. Decide what lenghts you find most comfortable. Then pick the length and width for your design.

After that, if you aren’t familiar with M1L, M1R, SSK or k2Tog, practice those. I can point you to blog posts showing these methods– but they are in all learn to knit books.

Then come back for Lesson 3! Remember that Lesson 4 will explain how to compute your scarf, and eventually, I will post a calculator that compute directions and estimates yarn requirements for your specific scarf. Those will be available by subscription only. To subscribe to the blog and access the full blog content, Click to subscribe To The Knitting Fiend: Premium.