Thursday, August 28, 2008

Lately I've had a strong desire to knit another Spontaneous Scarf. The idea for this scarf was published a million years ago in Spin-Off magazine (actually the Winter 2002 issue) and I must have knit 12 of these scarves. All of them are long gone as they were a very popular gift.

To make a Spontaneous Scarf you need to collect a lot of different yarns, preferably in the same color. I've used many different weights and fibers in the same scarf and it is a great use for tiny bits of handspun. Here's an old blurry photo of one in varying shades of red.



These scarves are knit lengthwise back and forth on a long circular needle in seed stitch. I generally just cast on stitches until I'm completely sick of casting on stitches but I like my scarves long, about six feet or so. For these scarves you use a different yarn for every row and leave long tails each time you begin and end a new row to knot and make fringe. I knot them (about four yarn strands per knot) during the actual knitting because they will unravel.

Here's one I knit in Kool Aid dyed handspun during an electrical black out. That is my only excuse for the strange colors. This was knit pretty loosely but you can get an almost woven look if you do it tightly.