Julie's Scarf Problem

This is a blog post in response to my friend Julie’s blog post about knitting projects that curl. Lets get right to it. Here are the pictures; do you see what is happening here friends?

Here is the thing, and I don’t like telling you this Julie: stockinette stitch curls, it does not lay flat. By the way, stockinette stitch is knit a row, purl a row.

Don’t believe the hype about blocking. I love blocking to get my projects looking even and professional looking, but not to combat major curling – which is what you are faced with. So you totes should block but not to uncurl, just to make all your stitches look perfect. How you block depends on what your yarn is made of. 

You haven’t gone too far. I suggest if you can’t live with the curling (which will be much worse when you take the needle out. The needle is trying to keep the whole thing straight, when it is gone you will have a tube, which could be cute) you take it out and start over.  Curling can be curbed with a boarder. Lets say your project is 20 stitches wide, here is what you do:

Um… I don’t usually fix knitting projects over the internets and I am realizing that I rely heavily on sketching. Ok, lets say that the X’s are knits and the O’s are purls.

Right now you are doing this

Row 1: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Row 2: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Row 3: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Row 4: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And so on….

I suggest a scarf of stockinette with a garter (all knit) border so the first few rows and the last few rows are all knit. Then, for the main part of the scarf you can do garter stitch on the edges.

So do 6 or 8 rows all knit (k a row, k a row, k a row….)

Then switch to this pattern

R 9 :XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R10:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R11:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R12:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R13:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R14:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R15:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R16:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Or, leave it as is and love it!

What do you think? Other suggestions from my knitty friends?