Superwoman does not exist, does she?

Have a look at the scarf pattern below.

Not so long ago: mother of 4 girls, self-employed, late-night student.

Present day: mother of 4 “girls”, grandmother of 6, self-employed, keeps studying (obviously different subjects than in the past).

In addition she’s very fond of her chicks and grandchicks, caring and loving, supportive, strong, determined and an extremely modest person. She’s the life of the party, the first one to arrive and the last one to leave, the family psychologist and an unconditional shoulder to cry on.

Years ago I was having a conversation about the difficulties of being a working mother with someone that told me that Superwoman does not exist but my reply was:

- “Of course she exists and I know her!”.

Happy Birthday, Mum!

And take good care of yourself because we need you ( no, I’m not sorry at all for being so selfish).

Now, as you know, this is "alittlebitofeverything" sort of blog-shop but I always end up telling you something related to knitting/crocheting. I’ve knitted this set for her, my Super-Mum or the Super-Nonna as the grandchicks call her (nonna means grandma in Italian and she loves the grandchicks to call her nonna instead of grandma in Spanish).

I’ve knitted the hat using a 100% wool yarn in chocolate brown and the short scarf with a variegated blend of wool yarn. Why a short scarf? Because she cannot bear wearing cowls or long scarves so I’ve knitted and extra-wide short scarf  (13,8 inches wide flat) ending in two heavy pompons that add up weight so that the ends stay crossed and she can warm up her neck.

The hat is a Patons design. If you’re interested click here.

The extra-wide scarf is my own improvisation and it’s a very easy to follow pattern:

Materials:

- A pair of circular needles (23.6 inches long) and matching yarn.

- Another pair of circular needles or DPNs the same diameter that the ones you’re knitting with for the decreases.

- Stitch markers.

- Scissors.

- Tapestry needle.

The pattern:

First you have to knit a 4X4 inches swatch in stockinette stitch (yes, you have to) with the yarn that you’re going to use and calculate the number of stitches that you have to cast on in order to obtain a 27.6 inches long circumference (that is the number of stitches per row of the swatch multiplied by 2.76). Once you have calculated the number of stitches required make a provisional cast on so that you can close that end of the tube later.

Then all you have to do is join and knit furiously in the round until you reach the desired length, having in mind that the decreases parts are going to add up between 2.5- 3.1 inches (both ends).

Make the decreases as follows: 

Put stitch markers every 10 sts in the last knitting round.

Odd rounds: K2tog after the first marker and ssk the last two stitches before the next marker. Repeat all the way around.

Even rounds: knit.

Switch to DPNs or use the other pair of circulars when needed.

When there are 2 stitches left between markers, k2tog all the way around, and if there are more than 12 stitches left on your needles, *knit another round and k2tog again in the next round. Repeat from * if necessary until you have 12 or less stitches on your needles.

Cut a long tail of yarn and fasten off the remaining stitches. Weave in the tail.

Put the live stitches of the other end of your scarf on the needles and repeat the decreasing process.

Sew the two pompons and there you have it! A pretty nice short tube scarf.

It is obvious to say that this is a flexible pattern and that if you want to make your scarf narrower or longer than the one I’ve knitted all you have to do is make the appropriate changes casting on less stitches and/or knitting more rounds.

If you want to know the length of the decreasing part of the scarf you only have to make a few simple calculations: suppose that I have 128 sts on my needles. If I’m going to decrease 2 sts every 8 sts I will have 32 sts less at the end of the round. If I make 3 decreasing rounds I end up with 32 sts on my needles. Now I make a K2tog round and there are 16 sts left. After another K2tog round the number of stitches on my needles is 8 and I can finish off the scarf. The number of decreasing rounds, including the even rounds, is 9. If my swatch says that 24 rows equals 4 inches, 9 rounds should be 1.5 inches. I have 2 ends so the total length of the decreasing parts of the scarf would be 3 inches.

Got it?

That’s all for today, which is no small thing… See you next Friday!