Dragon Scarf Complete!

A long week-end in February! Family Day is Monday, February 18 – rejoice! We really needed this after last week-end. We were too busy with my son’s birthday party going on for knitting (or much of anything else) to have any presence.

I pleased to announce that I have finally completed my son’s Dragon Scarf! I’m very happy with the results. You will notice the lovely blue tuft of hair which my son wanted his dragon scarf to have. It’s Bernat’s Disco.
You will also notice two slits above the hair. I was trying to come up with something that would make it easy for a child to fasten and unfasten a scarf. Buttons can be tricky as well as long ties. With two slits there, he can slide the tail of the dragon through. It didn’t work as well as I had planned though. Apparently, it comes undone a little too easily for him now. I told him to just pull it through a little further so the scales could lock it in place. We’ll see how it goes.
I thought it would be nice if the dragon had glowing eyes that stood out. I used some yellow yarn in a satin stitch and red beads for the pupils. The puffs of smoke are just four strands of white yarn I fringed through two holes I made for nostrils.
On to a Moebius Scarf for my mother-in-law and hopefully some more knitting time.

Fear of Cutting?

The dragon scarf is progressing nicely now that I’ve had some time to knit. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Two pictures, even better:
This design has evolved from my original concept. I was originally going to do ordinary mitred squares but then I thought, “It would be nice to get a dragon scale overlapping effect”. I recalled seeing other garment pictures with irregularly shaped mitred squares, partial shapes, and some inlaid within the other. I thought I can do that. So I devised my method.

In the centre, I have a straight needle working the small, solid coloured, mitred square. The centre square is the only place I cut yarn. I pick up 7 stitches along the edge of the right mitred square, take the loop left from the square below, then pick up 7 stitches along the edge of the left mitred square, which I can’t do if I leave yarn attached on my last stitch.

You will notice in the picture above that I have one circular needle active on each variegated mitred square with yarn still attached; I never cut yarn on these squares. Let’s take the right square as an example. Once my small teal square in the centre is complete, I start the right square. I have 15 stitches on the needle, I cast on 7 more. I knit working the mitred decrease, then pick up and KNIT another 7 along the edge of the teal triangle I just completed. I purl the entire next row, but after that, I keep working the mitred square as a garter stitch square decreasing until I get down to 15 stitches again ending with the right side facing; then that side goes on hold and I work on the left side. I was hoping the bit of stockinette in between would help distinguish the individual “scales” (without having to cut and join yarn).

Because I end with the right side facing on the left mitred square, I turn the work so that the wrong side is facing me and do a pick up and PURL along the left edge of the centre square. I then turn the work so that I have my right side facing me to begin knitting again. I knit across, working the mitred decrease and finish knitting the row. I turn my work and cast on 7 stitches; I then purl the row. I continue working the garter stitch square as above until I’m down to 15 stitches again. All this so I don’t have to cut and rejoin yarn again. I’m even working from both ends of the ball at the same time; I like going for maximum efficiency.

Would it be simpler to just cut my yarn each time and rejoin it so I could start knitting from the right side? Probably; but I gotta be me.