I’m sending you off to your new home.

I hope your new owner loves you very much. I know they deserve you. Be a good scarf!

Tags: Red Scarf Project

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Today Norma mentioned that the OFA starts accepting scarves for their Red Scarf Program on September 1st. Since our weather will soon be taking a turn for the worse, I decided to give my Red Scarf a nice soak and block today, ahead of schedule.

(Clashes a bit, doesn’t it? Ouch.)

Technically this scarf, knit in Lion Brand Wool Ease which is 85% acrylic, doesn’t need a full wet blocking. But I always like to give things a real wash before sending them out in the world. If for no other reason than to wash out some of the cat dander.

I’ve dialed back a lot of my charity knitting in recent years. The Red Scarf Project is one of the few that I still knit for. Let’s face it: there are a lot more efficient ways to get warm clothing to the unfortunate than to knit it by hand.

Unlike other knitting charities, the Red Scarf Project is one that wants knitting because of what it means, rather than as an item of clothing. These are kids who grew up in the foster care system, who grew out of foster care at 18, and yet still went on to college.

It’s an amazing accomplishment, but they have no one to be proud of them for it. Nowhere to go on holidays, no one to send them a birthday present. They have friends, to be sure, and partners, but it’s not the same as family, is it?

I tell you what, though. A hand-knit scarf really means a lot to these kids.

A few years ago, I happened to be driving past the UW campus on February 16th. (The scarves are distributed on Valentine’s day.) I saw a girl walking down the sidewalk, wearing a big red scarf knit in that “X’s and O’s” cable pattern, smiling like the happiest girl in the world.

Was it a Capital-R Capital-S Red Scarf? Was she an OFA kid? I can’t say, but the memory has stuck with me.

The OFA will be accepting scarves until December 15, so there’s still time if you want to knit one! They prefer quality over quantity, so this is a time to dig deep and knit or crochet something really special. It’s going to a kid who’s going to love it and cherish it for a lifetime, so it’s worth the effort!

Tags: Lion Brand Wool Ease, Red Scarf Project

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I think the key to a successful design progression is to choose only one part of the design to change with each progression.

That was my original plan for this scarf. One block of stockinette and reverse stockinette checkers, one block of stockinette and seed stitch checkers, and so forth.

Unfortunately, Wool Ease has terrible stitch definition. After the seed stitch checkers just looked weird and lumpy, and the moss stitch checkers looked even weirder and lumpier, I kind of gave up. So I have blocks of stockinette with reverse stockinette, moss stitch, garter stitch, then diagonals, then mini checkers (eight checkers across), then the same pattern backwards.

See what happened? It just isn’t as coherent as I might have liked.

I probably would have been happier if I had stuck with The Plan, gritted my teeth, and knit those crappy-looking seed stitch blocks. In fact if I make another of these scarves, or if I used a different yarn, I probably would.

It’s not a deal-killer, I think overall it looks just fine. It’s rumpled and quirky-looking, but I think that’s acceptable for college students. Just a “note to self” for the future.

Tags: Charity Knitting Month, Red Scarf Project

Comments (3)

I cast on 42 stitches this time (the previous scarf had 33). Naturally this one is turning out a little on the wide side. But after being machine washed and dried (Wool Ease’s great strength), it should be juuuuust right.

Each row of checkers is 2″ high. Since I like things to be symmetrical, each unit will be 4×4 checkers, or 8″ high. (And square, obviously.)

A six foot scarf is 72 inches long, which is nine units. (72″ of length / 8″ units = 9.)

This unit is just stockinette + reverse stockinette. I’ve planned out the other nine units in a repeating pattern. If this is unit A, and the next one is unit B, then the pattern will go:

A B C D E D C B A

The next unit is stockinette + moss stitch (or is it double moss? I can never remember – little blocks of 2×2 stitches). Then stockinette + garter rib, and so forth.

It’s a good way to break up the knitting. I find that something as long as a scarf requires some kind of knitting strategy, otherwise it’s just too demoralizing. This will end up being a little on the quirky side, but I think it should suit a college student (male or female) acceptably.

Tags: Charity Knitting Month, Red Scarf Project

Comments (4)

You know how it is. Sometimes you’ll be knitting a scarf in a scrunchy pattern, and it’s not quite as wide as you like, but you tug on it a bit and think, “Sure, that will block into shape nicely with a bit of steaming and pinning.”

Well, I was four feet into knitting my Red Scarf Project scarf when I suddenly realized that I was knitting it in Lion Brand Wool Ease. Which is 85% non-block-able acrylic.

I rarely knit with Wool Ease anymore, but it was my go-to yarn when I was a beginning knitter. So I can tell you for a fact that Wool Ease will block out a little bit, but not for very long. Like, as soon as you wear it for about five minutes, it will spring back into its original shape.

I considered several different options. But I needed to get about 2″ of width out of a scarf that was settling itself at 5″. Any option to add that much width would be like turning in a paper in 16 point font with 3″ margins all around. Like, Come ON.

So I ripped it all back and started over. I have a nifty idea for a progression based on a checkerboard pattern which will hopefully look nice, be suitably unisex, and keep me from dying of boredom.

Tags: Charity Knitting Month, Red Scarf Project

Comments (3)