Learning to Knit: Knitting A Hooded Scarf

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The hood is attached to the side edges of the scarf. The instructions tell you to pick up 85 stitches along an 18 inch length of scarf. Huh? (Actually, it said to measure 9 inches either side of the seam joining the two scarf halves together. That is 18 inches.)

What they want you to do is measure the section, divide the section into smaller sections, then put the proper number of stitches into each section. I used a combination of stitch holders and cable needles to mark off the sections. You could also use safety pins. If you divide it into six 3 inch sections, then you would have picked up 14 stitches in each section plus one stitch on the center stitch where the two scarf halves join. It may sound complicated, but once you get into it, it is quite easy to do. Refer to your basic book, such as 'I Taught Myself Knitting' if you need a refresher on how to pick up stitches.

I am working on the hood and everything is going great! Until, we have to split the right, left and center sections of the top of the hood. My advice is to write down the instructions so that you can follow them easily. Especially when you start on the left side of the hood. The instructions say to reverse the shaping of the right side of the hood.

You may be able to do that conversion easily in your head, but I needed to put it on paper so that it didn't get too confusing.

It is important to not slip a stitch. If you end up with an extra stitch, or not enough stitches. You need to go back and unknit the garment until you find the area where you either did not slip the previous stitch off the needle, or you accidently allowed a stitch to fall off the needle and it is just hanging there. In the later case, the stitch could unravel down to the beginning giving you a long run in your project. I got very good at unknitting. In fact, I can now unknit a project as fast as I can knit! Ha ha! Not something that I want to do very often, but I am glad I took the time to learn.

Accidents do happen though. What happens if you dropped a stitch without realizing it and have already bound off the edge? This happened to me and I had to figure that one out for myself. The 'I Taught Myself Knitting' book does not cover this. The book only told you how to pick up a dropped stitch and bring it up to the working row.

This is what I did.
I was looking over the scarf after I bound off the edge when I discovered I had a slipped stitch. First, I brought it up to the row where it was dropped from. I then tied a piece of yarn onto the stitch and weaved it into the pattern. You cannot even see where it was. I know this is cheating, but I will be the only one who knows.

Once this is done, you can stitch it up, hide the loose strings and start on the Pom Poms. I bought a cheap pom pom maker. I didn't like it. It was just a circle that you are to wrap the yarns around.

I ended up borrowing my daughters Pom Pom maker. It was so easy, my 5 year old granddaughter is able to do it!

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