I want to preface this by saying that I’m not exactly a knitter, just someone who knows some of the basics of how to knit .

Inspiration: The design for this scarf is based on the decals shown on the Transplanetary Racing Pinnace (really fast, luxury spaceship) known as the Razorback from the TV series “The Expanse”. My sister and her husband shared this show with me during the initial covid lockdowns, and it quickly cemented itself as one of our favorites! After the series ended (or at least was put on an extended pause… still holding out for season’s 7-9!) I wanted to make a gift for my sister and her husband that celebrated our love for The Expanse, and as soon as I thought of making a scarf with this design I knew it was time to get started!

Design Generation: So there are a decent amount of images of the Razorback’s decals that I found both from the show and other online sources, but I had trouble finding the right one to use as a reference image for this project. So instead of trying to find the perfect reference, I decided I would just make it myself. I ended up recreating the Razorback decal in the 3D modeling software OnShape to have more control over the proportions and sizing of the design, which turned out to be quite a project on its own . But when I was finally happy with the design I took a screenshot and then uploaded it into the ‘Pixel Art’ Google Sheets add-on to pixelate the image into the cells of a spreadsheet. I had to play around to get the right sizing and needed to touch up some of the cell colors, but eventually I essentially had a color chart I could use as a pattern for the scarf!

Knitting Trial and Error: This project changed a loooot over its initial development. I started knitting in January 2022, working on a couple test pieces I used for proof of concept, and had my mind set on having a finished product by Christmas. After knitting on and off for a couple days, however, I ran into my first problem: my proportions were horribly off. I initially wanted the scarf to be about 7” wide, but what I was knitting was over 12” wide! Turns out that when you choose a higher image resolution to pixelate, there ends up being more pixels! Not wanting to reduce the resolution of the the design, I continued to retry making this project over and over again, using progressively smaller yarn and smaller needles until I was using like 1mm needles and some really thin baby yarn. I actually got a decent way into that last iteration before taking a step back to look at it and realizing how ugly and tiny it was . Oh, and btw, I was using double pointed needles during this time, so I was doing less than thriving throughout this process.

By this point it was April, and I decided to put this project on an indefinite pause, and put it out of sight. But as mid-September rolled around, I joined a local craft group and suddenly had the audacity to think that I could fix what was wrong with this project, start from scratch, and have a finished product by Christmas! I did end up reducing the resolution of the pixelated color chart, which did help bring the width of the scarf into an acceptable range, and started again with new, regular sized yarn and circular knitting needles (which was such a great quality of life improvement lol). I actually got into a pretty good groove for a second too, before I realized that I was double-anchoring at the colorwork sections, resulting in a raised, unappealing look. So I swallowed my pride and started making plans for how I could have this scarf ready by the following Christmas. After making additional finishing touches to the color chart, I started working on what was either the 6th or 7th version of this scarf in January of 2023. Fortunately for me, that turned out to be the final iteration of the design.

Final Knitting Materials and Techniques:
Scarf Design and completion time: The final design for this scarf was 72 stitches wide x 457 rows. The final scarf ended up being a little over 6.5” wide and pretty much exactly 5 ft long. Your mileage may vary . I tallied each row I completed and alternated the color of that tally every other day that I worked on the scarf. In total it took me about 70ish days to finish this scarf, averaging about 7 rows per day that I knat.

Yarn: The final version of this scarf uses the ‘Really Red’ and ‘Cream’ colors’ from Big Twist’s ‘Living’ Acrylic size 4 Yarn. I chose this yarn due to their rich colors and soft texture. The scarf ultimately needed two skeins of each yarn, but I had leftovers for both when I finished

Needles: I don’t exactly remember where I got my circular knitting needles, but they are 4mm in diameter and are about 16” from tip to tip. They are also metallic, which I personally find to have a much better feel while knitting as compared to bamboo needles. These needles really ended up being the perfect size for the scarf.

Bobbins: The large amount of alternating colors in this scarf led to a lot of bobbins being used. I think the most I had at a given time was like 12 different strands of yarn sticking wrapped around their bobbin. They definitely kind of cluttered the working area, and I took to calling the project my octopus. But at the same time they greatly helped with ensuring I didn’t have long strands of yarn that might mess with the tension of the scarf. For this project I made my own bobbins by cutting out little capital letter H’s out of Cheeze-it boxes that I then wrapped the yarn around. I cut little slits into these bobbins where I could secure the yarn so they wouldn’t unwind themselves. Eventually the cardboard bobbin would lose integrity, but at that point I would just cut out a new one.

Securing Method: I think I may have come up with a new (or most likely reinvented) way to do colorwork in the round that involved knitting on the outside, anchoring the working yarn to one of the bobbin yarns, and then purling the inside of the yarn. I haven’t seen this method brought up in the tutorials I watched, but it was a pretty useful way to have everything come out as one piece as a tube scarf. At the end I laid the scarf flat and sewed it flat. You don’t have to look too closely to see my bad sew job, but I cared more about each side having its own distinct face.

Final Thoughts: This scarf definitely challenged me, and I got to learn a loooot about colorwork, especially blending between Fair Isle and Intarsia. Overall, this is probably one of my most ambitious (or at least longest lasting) creative projects to date, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out in the end! Knitting this thing definitely became a little addicting, and it felt so fulfilling to finally finish the scarf and give it to my sister and her husband for Christmas 2023!