The Knitting Fiend

I found the perfect project to knit using my first hand dyed yarn! It’s the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf by Karen Baumer¹ I discovered the pattern when Betty, KitKat’s mom, was knitting it during a Thursday night meeting of “The Diabolical Knitters”. On last Thursday’s meeting, I asked Betty where she found the pattern, and, organized person that she is, she had the pattern with her!

The next day, I cast on and started knitting my scarf. It’s finished now! See?

Now I bet you are wondering what the yarn looked like before I knit it up. But did I take a photo of my hand dyed yarn before winding it up and casting on? No!

For those of you who want to imitate my scarf to get this color effect, I started with 1 hank of KnitPicks superwash merino (220 yds/ 100 grams.) When dyeing, laid the wet hank out and dyed one edge with a “red” color and another edge with “yellow”. (Knit picks has several reds– I don’t know which I used.) Near the center, I sort of blended them and massaged the yarn. It turned “burnt orange”.² I ended up with a hank that was red on one edge, yellow on the other and orange in between.

Since I was a beginner, I only dyed one skein in this colorway. That meant I needed to find a 1 skein project. Luckily, I found one.

Anyway, the scarf pattern is beautiful and it’s easy to knit up. It’s all garter stitch worked in short rows.

The only “problem” with the pattern is the yardage needs are a bit vague. Karen suggests you can knit a 4′ x 5″ scarf with 200 yds. Well… yeah… but in what gauge? I knit a 35″ x 5″ scarf using 220 yds which means I needed more yardage than suggested. (But of course, I knit at a gauge of 5.4 st/inch. It may be that Karen uses thicker yarn and/ or knits using a looser right ; that would result in a longer scarf using 200 yds?)

Anyway, since I want to make this scarf again, and I want a better yardage estimate, I decided to write a yardage estimator. My estimator is based on my scarf and a bit of “yarn use theory”. You can enter your gauge, desired length and width, and the estimator will predict the yardage required. (Since you we all know you aren’t going to knit a swatch, the calculator provides a few extra estimates.)

Give it a try!

Enter Gauge Information
To obtain an accurate pattern, you must knit a garter stitch gauge swatch using the needles and yarn you picked to knit your shawl, then enter
values here.

Enter your stitch gauge in garter stitch.

Stitch Gauge: st/inch

Design Your Scarf

Enter scarf width and desired length.	Scarf Length: inches. Scarf width: inches.
Click to create your pattern.

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1. The url for Karen’s scarf is http://douma.net/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm I followed directions for the more symmetric end which were provide by Matthew Hessons-McInnis.
2. For more details on dyeing, you will need to read about soaking the yarn, spraying it with vinegar etc. Knitpicks has directions.