A crocheter learns to knit: annotated tips

Notes:
The instruction - Had to look up how to do slip stitch edging. There is a video out there on this scarf. It has slightly different instructions than in the original pattern. Don’t follow the video. Just slip the first and last stitch purlwise on the second row of each color. (slipping purlwise = put your right-hand needle through the stitch as if to purl, slip it off the left needle onto the right needle and continue with the pattern). Turns out very nicely.

The slip stitch edging - Worth learning to do for the very nice finished side edges. What I learned the hard way: when you reach the end of the second row of a color and are slipping the last stitch purlwise, make sure your yarn is pulled to the front so it’s in the right position to pick it up again in the next color shift!

The tension - With all the color changing and yarn flipping etc, especially at the beginning, you will be tempted to pull the yarn up tight at each color change. Don’t!! Relax on those edge stitches so they are not at all tense or tight or you will get a curve in your scarf edge. I pulled the yarn up completely, but didn’t cinch it tight. Some of those loose edge loops seemed huge but they usually stretched out tight as I continued.

The yarn - Beautiful color shifts and it’s addicting to watch the changing color stripes…what cool color combo comes next? However, it varies quite a bit in thickness and thinness. Had to cut out a few sections where it was so thick it created big puffy sections in the knitting. Also .. the knots! Has knots in it that never seemed to occur on an edge so had to cut out those and rejoin yarn for those too. Also .. don’t be afraid to cut out certain undesirable colors or re-roll a skein entirely in the opposite direction to avoid the effect in the last photo. Both skeins had a light grey/green color at the same time. The colors are different, but similar enough that the stripe effect is lost for a bit.

The tails - So many, many ends to weave in from cutting out knots and the too thick/thin bits in addition to beginning/ending skeins. Wasn’t sure how to do this since there is no “back side” to hide the tails on. Found this great video on weaving in the ends on ribbing and that’s how I handled all the tails: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzMQ4tpFQoA

I’ve been chronicling my adventure in learning to knit with the Noro scarf on my blog. Want to make a Noro scarf or making one at this very moment? Follow my journey and read all my annotated (and I hope helpful) posts:

A Crochet Learns to Knit: Adventures with the Noro Scarf - Part I
Annotated Tips for Knitting the Noro Scarf - Part II
Annotated Tips for Knitting the Noro Scarf - Part III