The Folded Spiral. Frankie s Knitted Stuff

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1 Frankie s Knitted Stuff The Folded Spiral If you can knit garter stitch, you can make this scarf. It s just a long strip of knitting folded and joined as you go to create a spiral. You can use any yarn and needles and any number of stitches; I will give the basic pattern and then more detailed instructions for the two scarves pictured here. Knitting the Scarf Using the long tail method, cast on your chosen number of stitches and work in garter stitch until your knitting is twice as long as it is wide. This means knitting twice as many ridges as you have stitches (one ridge in garter stitch = 2 rows and ridges are easier to count than rows). For example, if you have 10 stitches you will need to knit 20 ridges or 40 rows. If you have 20 stitches, you should knit 40 ridges or 80 rows. The straight strips of knitting between folds will all be this length.

2 Folding the First Strip When you have finished this first strip the needle should be pointing to the right ready to make the first fold. Keeping the yarn at the back of the work, insert the needle into the left hand edge of the cast on row as shown above. Now knit a row, knitting this picked up lump together with the first stitch of the row. This is the first row of your next straight strip of knitting which should be the same length as the first one. In this picture I have knitted two ridges of the second strip and have put a safety pin at the left hand edge to mark my starting point. This helps keep track of the number of ridges knitted and is also needed when it s time to make the next fold.

3 Folding the Second Strip When you have completed the second strip, turn the knitting over so that the needle is pointing to the left and the safety pin is at the right hand side. Now, keeping the yarn at the back of the work, insert the needle on the right hand edge where the safety pin is. Don t just pick up one thread of yarn, these joins have to bear some weight so put the needle through about a stitch in from the edge. Knit the first row of the third strip, knitting this picked up lump together with the first stitch of the row. Carry on with the third strip, re-positioning the safety pin on the left hand side as before.

4 Folding the Third Strip At the end of the third strip, position the work so that the needle is pointing to the right with the safety pin at the left hand edge. Join the strip to the place where the safety pin is and continue knitting. There is a difference between the way the second and third strips are folded and it is the alternation of these folds which creates the reverse spiral of this scarf. If you only work one of these methods you will get a sort of knitted tube. The picture below shows the scarf laid out flat so that you can see the alternating folds. So, carry on knitting, working first the second strip fold and then the third until your scarf is as long as you want it to be. I think the spiral looks neater if you work an even number of folds but that s up to you. Cast off after a joining row. I used the sewn cast off (see below) but, again, that s Knitter s Choice.

5 My Scarves The cream one was knitted in Rowan purelife chunky (110m / 100g) on size 7mm needles. I cast on 15 stitches and so my strips were 30 ridges long. I worked 10 folds which, bearing in mind that this scarf is very hard to measure, gave me a scarf about 163cm / 64" long and 10cm / 4" wide. I used about 250g of yarn. The multi-coloured scarf was knitted in Mochi Plus (87m / 50g) from Crystal Palace Yarns on size 5.5mm / US size 9 needles. I cast on 12 stitches and my strips were 24 ridges long. I worked 20 folds resulting in a scarf about 200cm / 80" long and 7cm / 3" wide and I used 150g of yarn. This lovely shade is no. 561 but they re all beautiful. The Sewn Cast Off Cut yarn and thread a sewing-up needle: *Thread through the first 2 stitches on the needle purlwise then back through the first stitch again knitwise and pull this stitch off the needle. Repeat from * Frankie Brown, My patterns are for personal use only and should not be used to knit items for sale.