Pattern: Ribbed Scarf

Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting For This Project

Accidentally Going the Wrong Way

If you have to put down your scarf in the middle of a row, how to you know which way to go when you pick it back up again? Well, watch the video.

Counting Your Stitches

You’ll want to make sure you are on track every once in a while while knitting this scarf, so that it doesn’t accidentally get wider or narrower without you knowing.

The easiest way to do that is to count your stitches occasionally (more often initially; less often once you feel comfortable). Here’s the fastest way to count your stitches in knitting.

If You Drop a Stitch

If for some reason you have fewer stitches than you are supposed to, you make have accidentally let a stitch slide off your needle.

Here is a video showing four different scenarios and options for fixing this mistake.

Dropped Stitch Far Down

If you have dropped a stitch but continue knitting without noticing, here’s how to fix that.

If You’ve Added a Stitch

An added stitch usually happens at the beginning of a row, because you haven’t started with your yarn in the back of your work. The good thing is, if you’ve added a stitch, you’ll probably notice right away, because it will mess up your “knit 1, purl 1” pattern.

Review this video from the Learn-to-Knit course to recognize and stop this from happening.

How’s Your Tension?

I just want to check in with you to make sure you’re not developing any bad habits with your tension.

This is an important issue to nip in the bud if it comes up, so follow along with the video to check to see if you’re slipping into any of these habits, and the adjustments you can make to make sure you have great tension.

Binding Off In Pattern – BO in Pattern

Binding off in pattern (BO in pattern) just means that as you work your bind-off row, you’ll be knitting the knits and purling the purls on the last row (like you’ve been doing all along), instead of just knitting them all like you learned in the Learn-to-Knit bind-off video.

Work along with the video and see how even and flat this bind-off lays on this scarf.

This is abbreviated “BO in pattern.”

Weaving in Ends on Ribbing

Making your yarn ends look invisible on a double-sided project like this ribbed scarf can be a challenge. Here’s how I do it.

Great work! You’ve completed a gorgeous ribbed scarf, practiced your purling and ribbing skills, learned how to count stitches, watch out for and fix common mistakes, read more complex patterns, and finish your projects professionally.

Now it’s time to show off your project.

Introduction to Ravelry.com

I’d like to introduce you to a fabulous site called Ravelry, where you can put up pictures of your project, link them to their pattern pages, browse other people’s projects and notes, look for yarn, and so much more.

Ravelry is a great way to discover beautiful new patterns as well as connect with other knitters and share your experiences with them as well.

Why not head over and sign up for a free account? Ravelry will walk you through the steps of adding your first projects and finding your way around the site. I’ll be sending you to Ravelry often to look at yarns and project throughout this course.

It’s a big site, so don’t worry if you don’t learn how to use it all at once – we’ll be gradually getting to know it better as we go.

Also, you don’t need to sign up for an account to click the links and see the yarns and projects I’m going to show you on Ravelry, so do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Now, are you up for a knitting challenge? If you enjoyed the ribbed scarf project, why not try the following challenge project? You can start it and continue working through the rest of the course at the same time.