Easy Peasy Scarf Pattern (with gin)

I used to knit as a kid. I wasn’t great, the family would joke about how everything I made turned out enormous and used twice as much wool as it should but I wasn’t discouraged. I would give jumpers I made for my Tiny Tears to new born babies and new borns could wear my creations right up until they were toddlers. In my teens I asked for a mohair jumper as a birthday present, and was bought some wool, pattern and needles to make my own (Thank goodness I didn’t ask for a radio!) which I duly did and wore the jumper for years.

Then I put down (and lost) my needles and wool… for years. It is cheaper to buy clothes than make them now, fact.

After a recent bout of insomnia brought on my too much Candy Crush in the evening I decided to pick up the needles again. Of course I started with a scarf, despite having enough already to open a small shop. I was staying with our Rosie on Skye when I got the urge and we squeaked with excitement and set off to buy nice THICK wool, BIG needles and also teach Kate, who is six, the art. Kate was equally excited and we drove a 60 mile round trip to get all we needed.

I loved Kate’s enthusiasm and ambition. She chose great colours with sparkles (rather fortuitously in TMK brand colours) and had wonderful ideas about matching hats etc. When we got back I cast on a few stitches for her and we began to go “in the hole, round the tree, out of the hole and off!”. I was amazed that someone so young could pick it up so quickly and she managed without pulling everything too tight and with only the odd stitch dropped. I’m not sure she had bargained for it taking as long as it did though… three rows and her hands hurt from gripping the needles, and just a hint of disappointment that that it wasn’t quite finished yet.

Rosie and I, however, had the bug. Once we figured out the missing ingredient in our knitting bee, (see if you can spot it in the images below!) we even gave up on the idea of an Abba tribute night to stay in to watch Strictly with our knitting! It wasn’t long before we had completed our first projects in years.

Kate proudly modelling the finished scarf. We are now on scarf 2!

On my return from Skye and friend who owns a fabulous little shop that sells, wool, material and, the best bit, runs classed on what to do with it all (http://www.stitchedbyyou.co.uk/) gave me a lovely scarf pattern, which doesn’t look home made and is very simple. If you can count to three, do plain and purl you can manage it. Best of all it uses THICK wool and BIG needles and grows very very fast! The pattern is not available from Rowan wools any more so I am sharing it with you, including my own minor modifications.