Bamboo Stitch Loom Knit Scarf

I wanted to make a scarf for my husband this year. A nice thick and warm scarf, but also one that was a touch decorative. I started out doing cables, but I was not happy with the holes next to them. Advice I have received since then tells me that next time I should stick with the project, and judge it after I take it off the loom and block it.


I found a stitch called bamboo stitch that Denise Canela had converted from needles to the loom. It looked perfect for what I wanted, so I began working on a scarf design. I would say this is good TV knitting if you are watching something that isn't too intense. I did have to go back a couple times because I missed where I needed to do row three of the stitch pattern. To add to the ease of knitting this, I recommend using stitch markers placed on your pegs as a visual reminder of the repeats within a row.






I used Loops and Threads Cozy Wool in black (got it from my local Michael's on sale!), and a 3/4" gauge loom. I used about 2.5 balls of yarn, so I would recommend purchasing at least three balls or 250 yards so you have a little extra yarn. After casting on, I knitted until the scarf was about 70" in length. For most adult scarves, I would recommend 65-70" to allow for a good wrap, and some material tucked into the jacket to increase warmth. Plus a longer scarf can show off colors or stitch patterns better.

I used the U turn knit stitch except where indicated.


S1=slip one (meaning skip this peg
HS= half stitch (meaning wrap the peg from the back around the front. All of the first and last stitches of a row will be slipped and half stitched in turns. This gives a lovely braided look to the scarf's edges)
ssk= slip, slip, knit (over 3 pegs, lift the yarn off of peg one, slip the yarn in front, same with peg 2, and then flat knit peg three. Using the flat knit for the pegs where the yarn is slipped over the two preceding pegs causes these loops to be a little more snug in the finished product.)
Each row is 3+2


Cast on 22 pegs using the chain cast on


the pattern is worked over 4 rows:
R1: S1, k2, p1* until last stitch, HS
R2: S1, p1, k2* until last stitch, HS
R3: S1, ssk with the yarn in front, flat knit 1* until last stitch, HS
R4: S1, p1, k2* until last stitch, HS


Repeat the rows until the scarf is 65-70" in length




Cast off using the single or double crochet cast off. I used the double.


This scarf would make a great gift for anyone, but the pattern makes it an easy gift for a boy or a man, since it isn't a stitch pattern that would be considered "girly".






My husband and youngest in the new scarf!

To Frog or Not to Frog?

I am working on a design for a shawl I am going to call “Springtime”. It is a combination of two stitches, to evoke two images we often associate with springtime: little leaves and raindrops. I was going to do it all in a lovely mint color I got from my first DBNY.com order, but as I reached the end of the first skein, I realized I wasn’t going to have enough yarn. Plus it took me one iteration of my planned stitch pattern to get the border just the way I wanted. So I had one section where the border wasn’t quite right. I started playing with the idea of adding another color of yarn into my project. I have a nice blue, and that was when I was inspired!

I was planning on alternating the leaf stitch pattern and raindrop stitch pattern, but then I thought, “if I am going to add blue, then I can just do the raindrop stitch in blue!” I had already done some raindrop in the green though…. So it was decision making time. Do I continue on, with my new design ideas, and just leave the previous work the way it is, or do I pull it all off the loom and start over? Eventually, I came to the realization that what I currently have planned will be a more artful design, better conveying the idea of springtime.  I want my first prototype of the shawl to be everything it can be. I am hoping that this design will be my first paid design, and I want my prototype to be as beautiful, so that the pictures I take of this shawl speak to those who might have an interest in making one for themselves.

Conversely, I have made mistakes in my knitting and just left them. For example, I was making a garter stitch hat for one of my boys, and I accidentally did two rows of knit stitch. If you are a needle knitter, it would be like you throwing in an unnecessary row of purl stitches when trying to produce garter stitch. I hadn’t notice my error though, and produced about 1.5 inches of hat before I saw it. I was going to go back, but my husband said “Don’t worry about it. He won’t notice, it adds character anyway.” With my shawl though, the errors did matter, and if I had left them, I wouldn’t have been able to use the shawl for my pictures and for the final production of the design.

When deciding to frog a project (or not as the case may be), you should weigh the pros and cons. You don’t want to always leave noticeable errors in your project, but neither do you want to be such a perfectionist that you take forever to finish even short projects. Our mistakes are what help us to learn and grow, so they aren’t always all bad.

When you are knitting something for yourself, your mistakes may not glare at you as badly as when you are knitting a gift for someone else, or even knitting something you intend on selling. When you are knitting something you want to give or sell to someone else, the mistakes you make can bring down the perceived quality of the item, depending on what the mistakes are. You generally want to present your best work to others. In pattern design, you want to give people using your pattern the best example of the project you can. Your prototype should be an exact example of how other’s project can turn out if they follow your design.

Basically, I think frogging or even going back to far on a project should be a decision you make on a case by case basis. Having to go back to far can be very discouraging. If it is for someone else though, your motivation is different, and it becomes more important that the item appear exactly as you mean it too. We are not machines, to never make errors, but the work we sell or give as gifts deserves our best effort. Even if that effort means starting over, or undoing a lot of the project.