Friday, November 13, 2009

All designers start as tweakers, right?

Scarf and hat set
I keep finding more pink skeins of Cascade Lana Grande leftover from my Abrazo vest. I knit up a hat from Paulina Chin's Speedy Cabled Beret pattern, but wasn't as excited about her cute matching cowl. Then I found the super-fast Pidge Podge by knitnutt, and started tweaking. I'm excited to have something to share with the knitiverse.

I started right into a cabled design after casting on - here's the cast-on end, sans blocking.

Cast-on end of scarf

I realized that it would look nicer ending with ribbing instead of just letting the cables fall off the end. The pattern below is exactly what I did. If I did this again I would probably start with 5 rows of ribbing and then switch to the cable repeats to make the ends symettrical. It hardly matters, as the cast-on end doesn’t show when you button it up.

I would enjoy seeing other folks’ ideas for a neater transition from cable to rib, or just more variations on the Pidge Podge theme.

Cabled Pidge Podge:

Cast on 20 stitches.
Rows 1,3,5 (WS): p1, k1, [p4, k2] 2 times, p4, k1, p1
Row 2 (RS): k1, p1, [k4, p2] 2 times, k4, p1, k1
Row 4 (RS cable): k1, p1 [c4f, p2] 2 times, c4f, p1, k1
Row 6 (RS): repeat row 2

Repeat these 6 rows 11 more times, until work measures about 25 inches.

Repeat Row 1.

Ribbing:

Rows 1,3,5 (WS): p1, [k2, p2] 4 times, k2, p1
Rows 2, 4 (RS): k1, [p2, k2] 4 times, p2, k1

Bind off in pattern.