#sampler scarf

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turns out that if you don't have knitting needles, chopsticks also work as long as you make them pointier with a pencil sharpener.

sampler scarf knitting progress:

didn't take long to remember how knitting works. Couple rows of knit stitches, with a few purls in the first row

next I'll do a few rows of purls, and then alternating back and forth

[branda]

Frango Sampler Scarf - v e r y p i n k . c o m - knitting patterns and video tutorials

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trying out another braid pattern, from this video (well, the video is on a cable pattern, which I then braided). the braid is 12 stitches wide instead of the 9 stitches in the previous version. Much more 3D shaped

also, the repeat is much more compact, which I was confused about at first but I have realized that it's because it's a four row repeat instead of an eight row repeat. guess I should try an eight row repeat version next.

anyway, the pattern is that each strand of the braid is P, K2, P, and then you cable braid them the same way as if the strands were just K2. the purl stitches are what make it pop out more

here it is next to the flatter version, the original braid I learned

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today I did a knitting experiment. I had a braid pattern I was trying out, but I was having a bit of trouble visualizing it from the written out instructions, so I drew a quick grid and charted it out (doing a second iteration of the repeat so as to see the full pattern more clearly)

I thought it was a little weird how the bits between the braid are a mix of knit and purl stitches (well they're all purl, since half are worked on the back side, but the result is a mix--) and wondered if it would work better if those were all the same. So I modified the pattern with that difference.

Left: Original pattern. Right: My update

And then of course I had to test that theory out in practice. Who knows, maybe there was a good reason for the way it was already! So I knit both versions, two repeats each. First the pattern as it was, and then with my update.

Left: front side. Right: back side

They don't look too different from the front, except that the edges of the braids look sharper on my version. My husband says it looks like I was having difficulty doing the stitch right for the first half and then figured out what I was doing for the second half.

On the back, it's a very clear difference. Less of a diamondy pattern and more of a sort of straight stitch with gaps. (also, looking at the first half, I did get some stitches twisted when switching from knit to purl.) I think both could have their uses, but I'm likely going to use the modified version for projects I want a brain on, especially if the back is not going to be very visible.

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progress on the sampler scarf:

the diamonds didn't go as well as I was hoping, mostly because just knit and purl doesn't make a very nice diagonal border. So I transitioned out of them pretty quickly to try out cabling. That's going pretty well!

I think I've spent about three cumulative hours on the cabling so far. Started it in church last week, and didn't fully remember the instructions, so I got it mostly right but did the twists twice as often as I should—on every forward row instead of every other—so the first couple twists are tighter than they ought to be.

This week, I remembered the part about not twisting every time, and as a result the cables look much better.

After a couple twists I decided I wanted to see what it would look like if I kept one section forward, instead of twisting them around each other, and so I turned the middle two sections into wiggly bits. Next I think I'll see what happens if I purl the held back part, if it'll stand out better.

I also decided around the same point to swap my outer border from 3 knits to 1 purl 2 knit (with the purl being the first and last stitch on the row), because I noticed it was curling. Interestingly enough, it still looks pretty much the same, you can just tell it's flat now instead of curling in. Hopefully you can see what I mean in this video:

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I have been doing braided cables now

the left-hand one starts one row later than the right-hand one cause I forgot I was switching from stripes to cables and knit across it without twisting

they're different directions of braids, the right-hand one has the middle strand always going under, and the left-hand one has it always going over. wanted to see how that would affect things

also at some point I'm planning on starting a small 1-1-1 braid in the center (these two braids are 2-2-2), which will be interesting because I'll have to do half of the twists on the back rows. mostly I wanna see if it's possible or not

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finished the checkerboard part

next is diamonds!

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okay so when I last updated you I think I'd just transitioned one braid into a three-strand (2-2-2) twist and the middle bit into wiggles and was planning to transition the other braid to a two strand (3-3) twist. did those for a bit. Then changed the middle to some 1-1 ribbing, and tried a ribbed twist, putting a purl stripe in the middle of the 3-stitch-wide stripes of the two strand twist. which doesn't look very different from the front but makes for some diagonal stripes on the back

also tried purling the back sections of the 3 strand twist, wasn't very impressed with that.

transitioned the space between the borders into just ribbing for a bit, and then seed stitch, and now I've started on a braid pattern that's more open, so the strands are more distinct. It's an 8-row pattern, and I've got through row 2 of the second time of the pattern. I still don't fully get how it's working, but it is. probably I will chart it out later and stare at it, cause charts make more sense in my brain than written out instructions. (I can follow the written out instructions fine, I just can't picture them as well.)

also getting near the end of the yarn. probably only got a few rows left. so now I have to decide:

1. Do I swap to another color or to the second skein I have of this color? and

2. how do I join two strings to swap them??