This scarf had its origins in a fine Scottish cashmere sweater that belonged to my sons’ beloved Uncle Hap who died tragically a few years ago. There were a couple of small holes in this sweater, so I salvaged the yarn, and made two scarves with it for my two grown sons. (Only about 10 yards left over!) It was a very fine gauge yarn so I knit 3 strands together.

I knit a beautiful cabled scarf for the boy who gives a fig about clothes and is still single. And for the other one, who doesn’t care about clothes but is a great daddy, a scarf he can wear and entertain two little boys on any table or park bench.

I had fun knitting this, making it up as I went along. I-cord cast-on and cast-off, and twisted cables running up next to the selvages were the fixed boundaries around this “road trip” scarf. The road is formed by traveling knit stitches (hedges?) bordering the reverse stockinette “roadbed”. (I think this must be a road in the English countryside - hedges hemming the road in, and the road is just about wide enough for one car!) The “fields” between the road and the cable border changed stitch patterns - garter, seed, moss, rib. The “garages” for the micro machine cars (also Uncle Hap’s) were knit separately and stitched on, as was the highway overpass.

Daddy insists that Julian (4) and Morgan (2) only play with this on their frequent outings, not at home, so they eagerly remind him to wear it to the park. (That’s Grandpa borrowing it in the last picture.)

I’ve had so many requests for a pattern, which sadly doesn’t exist. But I’ll happily share some guidelines, the process of how I did it.

The Daddy Scarf guidelines.

First, go get your cars. I used Micro Machines; these are little cars about 5/8” x 1 1/4”. Not Matchbox cars which are about twice as wide and long. Next, make a little experimental piece. Cast on 22 stitches. Gauge doesn’t matter and use whatever solid yarn you like - worsted’s nice or a bit thinner. Use appropriate needle size for your yarn. (My yarn was maybe a tad thinner than worsted and I used size 7 needles.)

Now, how wide do you want the road? I made it wide enough for one car because otherwise the road is so big it eats up all the space you need to curve it. I used 6 stitches of reverse stockinette for the roadbed, with 2 knit border stitches on each side. So on your sample, place that 10 stitches of road somewhere in the middle with the remaining 12 stitches on the sides in seed stitch. So first row looks like: kpkpkp kk pppppp kk pkpkpk (Ignore the spaces) Second row: pkpkpk pp kkkkkk pp kpkpkp Work 4 or so rows like that, then start to drive the road.

All road driving happens on the right side of the work - odd rows in this instance. Work seed stitch until you get to the two k stitches bordering the road. Make those 2 k stitches trade places with one adjacent p stitch from the road. This is just a small cable or twist. Always keep the two k sts on top. Now you have an extra st in the right seed st area - make that new st keep in pattern, p or k, as needed. Now work the remaining 5 p sts in the roadbed --and you need another one. Steal it from the other seed st area - another 2k over 1p cable/twist. Work the rest of the row in seed stitch. You just moved the road over to the left by one stitch. You still have a 6 stitch wide roadbed with raised curbs. Turn and work back knitting the knits and purling the purls on the road part. Turn and repeat the road moving procedure.

Now play with this. If you move it over 1 stitch every front side row, its a medium sort of move. Try a 1 stitch move every other front side row and it will be a slower move. For a more sharply angled move, try making those 2 k border stitches trade place with TWO adjacent instead of one. When you do this, give the road an extra stitch in width because its such a sharp angle it gets narrower. You do that by making the inside of the curve move over 1 while the outside moves over 2. You can reverse that back to 6 stitches when the angle becomes less steep. You can take the road clear over till it touches the edge of the scarf or whatever border you’ve chosen. Go straight a row or two or three before you curve the road back to give a softer curve. You can go straight for a while, but not too many rows because the curbs flatten out and start to look like ribbing. Its the cabling that keeps them raised up.

See how that works? Just play with that. If you get how to move the road around, that’s key. To make a road divide, you can widen the road until its twice as wide and you can start putting the raised k stitches in the middle where the roads diverge.

Now you can cast on to whatever width you like (mine was 6”). I used an icord cast-on (not necessary). Use any side border, or none. (see below for the recipe for what I did for the sides.) Or the “fields” can go right to the sides of the scarf (makes more room to drive the road if there isn’t a border.) Make the “fields” moss, seed, rib, garter - lots of choices of patterns that have both knits and purls so it lies flat. You can make each field of a different stitch.

The overpass is knit as a separate little rectangle piece. The same 6 reverse stockinette roadbed plus 3 stitches each side knitted in icord edge. Knit this about 3 inches long, then stitch it on a place you have made the road cross. (Note carefully which section of road does not have the raised curb - you won’t be able to drive through otherwise.)

The garages (these look a little more like quonset huts, don’t they?) are little rectangles knit separately with the open edge having icord to stiffen it up. Stitch them on at the end of short driveways, keeping the openings facing the center of the scarf. Make them just snug enough that the cars don’t fall out. I put 3 at each end so there would be no squabbling! It’s about 6 feet long. I used an icord cast-off -again, not necessary. (One of the Elizabeth Zimmerman DVD’s, the Knitting Glossary, has a how-to on knitting an icord edge or cast-on or cast-off.)

Make a little play piece first, and you’ll soon be driving that road all over the place! If all this is as clear as mud, just ask me - I’ll try to clarify… or muddy further! Good luck, Catherine

Here’s the side border I used - the first and last 8 stitches in each row.

Row1 (RS)-sl 1 wyif, k1, p2, k2, p2, (all the stuff in the middle), p2, k2, p2, k1, sl 1 wyif
Row2 (and all WS)- k1, sl 1 wyif, k2, p2, k2, (middle), k2, p2, k2, sl 1 wyif, k1
Row3- sl 1 wyif, k1, p2, RT (right twist=k2tog leaving sts on left needle; then k first st again. Slip both sts off needle), p2, (middle) p2, RT, p2, k1, sl 1 wyif
Row 4 repeat row 2

wyif=with yarn in front
Repeat Rows 1-4 for 6 feet!