Good morning you honeybees. Lovers of flowers. Menacers of small children. I made a scarf that will totally appeal to you…
Isn’t that just the teeniest, yet most adorable scarflette you’ve every pointed those terrifying stingers at?
So here’s the background: as I’ve mentioned before (repeatedly. With lots of exclamation points.) we recently started carrying a limited selection of yarn at the shop. Limited, but very nice. Starting next month we’re going to be offering beginning knitting as a one-night class. For all you knitters out there, this might strike you as a bit on the ambitious side… but after putting some thought into it, I think I’ve come up with a good approach to introduce some practical instruction and a fun little project that we can cover in a few hours.
I used Blue Sky alpaca ‘Bulky’ (in azalea!) to knit this up. This yarn is 50/50 alpaca and wool with 45 yards per skein. It was really fun to knit up and not quite as ‘hairy’ as some of the other alpacas I’ve used. The scarflette design is super basic – I just cast 10 stitches on size 19 needles and knit in garter stitch ’till the yarn was gone. Since this is intended for beginners I didn’t do ANY sort of special finishing – not even slipping the stitches on the edge to give a neater finish! I DID use a long tail cast on, because I don’t have the patience to cast on in any other way – I hate how the yarn comes undone when using the more simple cast-on methods. Once I bound everything off and wove in my tails I tacked on this nice vintage button. The nice thing about knitting on size 19 needles is that there’s no need to knit a buttonhole – even for this giant button I can just slip the button in where I want to! It makes for a super-versatile scarf and I really like not having the long tails flying all over the place like with a traditional scarf!
The finished scarf is about 18″ long by 6″ wide. I love how the ribs look in the bulky yarn with the giant needles! Excuse the non-blocked wonkiness that’s going on in this photo…
My first knitting class isn’t until October – I’ll be dropping off the sample at the shop this week, but I’m not sure I can wait to bring it back home to live with me – I might have to knit up another to tide me over! We also have this yarn in ‘Cayenne’ – a gorgeous burnt orange. Sigh.
Love the colour on you! I think your project is perfect for beginning knitters.
I just started knitting this month and am currently working on my first item (a comfort shawl). While it is only one type of stitch, it is taking FOREVER. I wish I had started with something like you knit up. I think I will try your idea tonight!
Ughhh…. my first few knitting projects were sweaters knit all in garter. SO BORING!! I like quick’n’easy!
Adorable. Maybe, just maybe, will get me to try knitting. But in the meantime, going to make a crochet version for myself. The button is the important part anyway.
oooooo…. if you crochet one send pictures!
That’s a great first project. Not that I know anything about knitting, but it’s small enough to finish up before boredom sets in, it’s flexible in sizing that a little extra here or there will be okay and it’s practical. Very nice and the button really makes it.
That’s what I was aiming for – small, quick and not a alot of sizing/getting gauge required.
Love the chunky knit, the colour, and the awesome button! SUCCESS!
HA! Even I think I could make this cute little scarflette!…Love that!
Julie
Aw, that’s so cute! I’m a VERY beginner knitter, and suffer from living in a place that’s too hot for caps and scarves. I get bored before I can finish a project since there’s no point in making a scarf and I don’t really know what else to make!
You know – you could do something similar to make super cute wristbands or a sleeve for a to-go coffee cup! With the same size yarn, you’d just have to cast on maybe 3 or 4 stitches and then knit to length… that might be an even BETTER first class project…
I just started knitting (on Monday) and my first project is pretty similar (size 17 needles with puffy yarn making a scarf). It was a really fun and easy way to feel like I am making a nice first project, although mine has no button (pout). I may have to make this my second project.