Before and After

My friend Geraldine started a scarf and then abandoned it because she had run out of yarn before the scarf reached the desired length. When she got tired of this unfinished piece taking up space, she handed it off to me to see if I could do anything with it.

The scarf was curling in on itself because she had worked it in stockinette stitch with no edge stitches. The yarn was very bulky and she had cast on 23 stitches, resulting in a VERY wide scarf. After looking at it, I realized the only option was to frog it and start from scratch.

Geraldine is a fashion designer, so I wanted to make her a scarf with a little pizzazz. I toyed with a few ideas, including mixing the bulky yarn with a lighter weight one to create contrasting textures.

Ultimately, I decided just to use the existing yarn. I cast on 120 stiches and knit the scarf lengthwise, in the round, in seed stitch. After reaching the desired width, I cast off all but 10 stitches and unwound those 10 columns. The resulting yarn was cut at the center point, creating the fringe.

Even though I cast on and off loosely, the edges of the scarf are a tad stiffer than I would have liked, but they give the scarf a bit of structure and Geraldine seemed to like it!