Showing my newb/inspired by last post.

[jackandahat]

I liked this pattern so I turned it into a scarf (picture pre-blocking, it's still drying).

Now, I want to do one in the round so I can have both sides of the scarf looking the same. But I have two questions:

1. What do you do with the ends of a scarf knit in the round? (I've never done one before). Leave them open? Sew them shut? Do a provisional cast on and graft them like sock toes so they're all neat? (Both a general: "What should I do?" and "What do you do?")

2. When making it round - would I just repeat the pattern, side by side, or would it help to add a stitch either side so it will lie flat? (I was thinking a one or two-stitch-wide stockingette strip to be the "fold", if that makes sense?) Of course, I don't know what I'm doing here - never knitted a scarf in the round, just socks and hats and such - so I could be talking out my ear here.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

Any of your 'ends' alternatives are fine, though personally I wouldn't be inclined to leave them open. You could do something like Judy's Magic Cast-on for the start, and then graft the end, or the provisional cast-on/graft. Or sew together and/or fringe.

I'd be inclined to do *reverse* stockinette between the two pattern panels - i.e. purl when you're working in the round - as it tends to fold 'inwards' making a ridge, rather than knit which will try and make a 'ditch'. You might want to try it and see if you want the edging strips to be garter stitch (knit one round, purl one round), moss-stitch, or whatever. (So you'd be working, say, purl two, moss-stitch/whatever four, pattern across, moss-stitch/whatever four, purl two, repeat.)

[jackandahat]

Ah-ha! Thank you, that sounds like what I was thinking - I just wasn't sure if it would actually *work*, and I didn't want to get a foot in then realise it was impossible.

[aunty_marion]

Stocking stitch on its own will fold OK (think socks?), but when you've got all that pattern, you might need to 'force' a fold, which is why the purl might work a bit better. I'd advise trying a bit though, before you decide.

On the matter of 'counting' (as in other comments) - just use a ring-type stitch marker at the beginning and end of the 'pattern' sections, then you know when you reach that you move from moss-stitch/purl two (or whatever you've decided on) to pattern and then back again. Will you be using four dpns or magic loop?

[jackandahat]

Needles - neither, I have a 40cm circular. I've given up using DPNs for now because they wre aggravating my thumb, I've found this so much easier. I've checked, it'll fit.