Ridges

What do you do when you pick up a yarn that is absolutely beautiful in terms of the yarn quality, and absolutely difficult in terms of the colour palette, and you picked it up just because you were getting 800 metres of pure lace goodness for $3? (I sometimes wonder, does anyone else do this?) 

This one (3 balls of it for $9) were bought last year Christmas sales, and has been sitting there, I did not know what to make of it. It has a bright shade of blue, followed by a bright shade of neon green, followed by a dark sienna type shade and for some strange reason is called Apple Mix! On the good side, its wonderful to feel and you can tell it is good wool, and a pleasure to knit with. 2 ply. 

So, after much thought, raveling and unraveling, I am happy to be producing something that REALLY suits the crazy colour scheme - its looking wonderfully textured and ripply, as THICK RIDGES, feels all mountainy-greeny-skyish and most importantly, wearable as a super casual T-shirt - jeans kind of scarf. I am happy to have rescued it :) 

Stitch Pattern Notes: No lace (colours too wild), knit only, no purls, yarn held double throughout. Aim: Produce nice thick but soft fabric, to show off the colours but also to mix them sequentially. Ripple increases and decreases on the right side, All knit on the wrong side. Increases: yarn over, knit, yarn over. Decreases: slip two stitches, knit one, pass two slipped stitches over. On the wrong side, to prevent lacy-ness: knit through the back loops of the yarn overs. Put as many stitches as you want for the "slopes" between alternate increases and decreases, I have put 6 here.  

Elf Leaf Scarf

Designed a super simple pattern, inspired when reading The Hobbit with my son :) The Elf Leaf Scarf. 

Pattern

I used 2 50 gram Splendour Yarn balls from Lincraft (Australia) with 4 mm needles. But, the pattern is easy to make in any yarn, since you can use the "principle" and vary the number of base stitches, more stitches for thinner yarn, lesser for thicker yarn. The "principle" is to alternate between an increase part and a decrease part, while maintaining the central leaf vein. The increases and decreases all happen on the side of the piece and the vein is maintained in the centre. Super simple, really. 

Make 2 pieces exactly the same, then join by the Kitchener Stitch. 

Knit = K

Purl = P 

Slip, Slip, Knit: ssk

Knit 2 together: k2tog

Pass Slipped Stich Over: psso

Yarn over: yo

Slip a stich: sl

For all rows, slip the first stitch purlwise. 

Edge: 

Cast on 41 stitches. Preparatory Rows (PR):  

PR1: K19, sl 1,  k2tog, psso (you have reduced by two stitches), K19.

PR2: Knit. 

Repeat preparatory rows 1 and 2 till you have 17 stitches left. That is, from 41 stitches, you are down to 17 stitches, or the "thinnest" portion of the scarf.  

Body: 

Increase

Start on right side with 17 stitches. Increase rows (IR):   

IR1: K8, yo, K1, yo, K8. (19 stitches) 

IR2 and all even rows on wrong side: K5, p to last 5 stitches, K5. 

IR3: K9, yo, K1, yo, K9. (21 stitches)

IR5: K10, yo, K1, yo, K10. (23 stitches)

Continue in this way till you have 41 stitches (or back to the original number cast on).     

Decrease

Start on right side with 41 stitches. Decrease rows (DR): 

DR1: K5, ssk, ssk, K11, yo, K1, yo, K11, k2tog, k2tog, K5. (39 stitches)

DR2 and all even rows on wrong side: K5, p to last 5 stitches, K5. 

DR3: K5, ssk, ssk, K10, yo, K1, yo, K10, k2tog, k2tog, K5. (37 stitches)

DR5: K5, ssk, ssk, K9, yo, K1, yo, K9, k2tog, k2tog, K5. (35 stitches)

Continue in this way till you have 17 stitches (or back to the thinnest portion of the scarf). Last row in this section will be K5, ssk, ssk, yo, K1, yo, k2tog, k2tog, K5. 

Keep working the Increase and Decrease portions till you have reached a length equal to half the desired length of the scarf, and end after working an increase portion. On a 4mm pair, I did 4 full repeats (increase + decrease) and then an increase (that is, 4 and a half repeats). Make 2 pieces exactly the same, and join the 41 stitches (or the number cast on) with the Kitchener Stitch. 

Wash, Block, Wear, Gift!

Permutating Friends of 3 Scarf Pattern

Every once in a while, you "unvent" something, in Elizabeth Zimmerman's words. To me it means new ways of doing old things, but also new ways to explain old things, and seeing relationships between diverse things that may on the face of it have nothing to do with each other.

I was recently playing Friends of 10 with my 5 year old son. The game introduces kids to the total number of permutations or ways in which you can put two positive numbers together to make a bigger number. So, for example, there are 11 ways (not counting commutativity, in math terms, since 1+ 9 is the same as 9+1 in our number system), by which you can make the number 10:

• 0 + 10
• 1 + 9
• 2 + 8
• 3 + 7
• 4 + 6
• 5 + 5
• 6 + 4
• 7 + 3
• 8 + 2
• 9 + 1
• 10 + 0

The most interesting thing is that counting this way, there are always an odd number of ways in which you can produce an even number. So, for example, there are 11 ways (count the bullets above) to make the number 10. And, in beautiful contrast, there are always an even number of ways in which you can produce an odd number. So, for example, there are 2 ways to produce the number 1: (0+1), (1+0). 

So, what does this have to do with a pattern? Well, here goes. I was crocheting as I played with him, and I kind discovered this pattern. Then, afterwards, I searched on the net, and found several similar variants, of what is called the "waves" pattern. But, re-discovering it from the first principles, starting from a math game, really tickled me. 

Permutating Friends of 3 Scarf Pattern

We will do friends of 3, and let a slip stitch (ss) stand for 0, single crochet (sc) for 1, double crochet (dc) for 2, and treble crochet (tr) for 3. So, now, lets look at the 4 combinations of making 3: 

• 0+3
• 1+2
• 2+1
• 3+0

Are you getting the idea? It's so exciting, isn't it? 

Cast on a multiple of 7+1 stitches. For the scarf cast on a number of stitches long enough to cover the length of the scarf, and depending on the needle size.  

Now, a simple two row repeat plus a foundation row, based on our friends of 3 permutations above: 

• R1: Foundation row: ss into second chain from hook, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss, *ss, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 
• R2: Chain 4 (stands for the first tr), now, working only in the back loops of the previous row, dc, sc, ss, sc, dc, tr, *tr, dc, sc, ss, sc, dc, tr*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 
• R3: Chain 1, working only in the front loops of the previous row, ss into first chain from hook, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss, *ss, sc, dc, tr, dc, sc, ss*, repeat the 7 st pattern from * to *. Turn work. 

Repeat rows 2 and 3 for pattern. Make the width of the scarf as thick as you want. Cast off and finish. 

In the first row we go singing: 0-1-2-3-2-1-0

Ravelry link to project

And in the second row we go singing: 3-2-1-0-1-2-3

Ravelry link to project

Ravelry link to project

And every stitch on the two rows together makes friends of 3, so the height effectively remains constant over the two rows, and we, nevertheless, get the waves. Plus, working into the back and front loops gives a raised pronounced look that defines the waves. How exciting! 

Ravelry link to project

By the way, this is just plain old kindergarten math leading to the explanation of a crochet pattern from first principles. There is a whole section in combinatorics and higher mathematics that looks at what is called partitions: computing the numbers of ways you can put together k numbers to add up to a number n. So, technically, we were looking at a 2-way partition. Can we look at multi-way partitions for designing patterns? Always, the simple builds bit by bit to build to the complex, and this never fails to inspire me and put the wonder back into me! Hope you enjoy the pattern!