living in the woods and making stuff

I went home early from work yesterday, and was busy tending to the fires (three of them), baking potatoes, and knitting a braided sort of scarf pelt. I toyed with the idea of knitting strips and braiding them together, but decided on making a sort of cable braid. I made it as if there were 5 strands woven together, and started with 3 stitches in each strand. As I continued, I added stitches to each strand, and rows between the cables.

Once I made it about half as long as I wanted, 11 stitches in each strand, and about 18 rows between cables, I started to decrease, in approximately the same manner that I increased. I wasn’t exact, and one end is a bit shorter than the other.

The increase was more pronounced at the beginning and end, as I was increasing at the cable crossings and they were coloser together. This seemed to be a good measure for increase though. Because I used only 5 strands for the cable, the scarf wasn’t able to grow quite as wide as I was imagining. I am thinking that the same design would work well with 7 or 9 strands too.

At the edges, I cast on 7 stitches, and knit in stockinette stitch for a few rows. I folded under and sewed these edges (below), as I wasn’t sure what else to do…too bad I don’t have some animal paws to sew on. Then it would really feel like a pelt..

I used Rowan Cocoon, and started the very beginning with size 10 needles. I quickly moved to 10.5s for a few rows, and then settled on 11s for the majority of the project. I wanted the finished material to be a little bit softer, not too stiff. Before blocking the scarf was a little bit stiff, but after blocking, the material developed a lovely drape.

My only problems with the scarf were the huge holes created at the cable cross overs. I am not sure what, if anything I could have done to improve this. Will research!

The finished scarf is long enough to wrap around my neck about 2 times, and the ends tuck in nicely. And it is warm, soft and cozy!