Knit an Easy Scarf Using Helical Knitting

Last month I shared a collection of helical knitting patterns and mentioned that I was learning more about helical knitting this year and had been working on a scarf using the technique that wasn’t ready yet.

It took me a full six weeks to knit the six foot long (1.8 meter) scarf, but it was so satisfying I didn’t even mind it that much.

I decided that I wanted it to be a stash-busting project and that each section would be in rainbow color order, using various oddballs and changing yarn whenever needed within that color section.

For the “second” color I chose black, a skein of Big Twist that was one of the last things I bought at Joann. I like the contrast between the black and the other colors, and it’s nice to have one harmonious secondary color throughout, though of course you could use odd balls for both colors to make it even more scrappy.

I didn’t pay a ton of attention to yarn weight on this project, though most of it is worsted/medium weight. There’s a little bit of heavier yarn in there, too, and maybe a bit that’s a little lighter, too. This scarf can take all kinds.

And despite it taking kind of a long time to knit, it’s actually pretty fun and easy to do. It was good TV knitting, which you might not expect when first learning helical knitting, but as long as you put a stitch marker where you need to slip your stitches you don’t really need to pay attention otherwise.

You can find the pattern for the helical scarf on my website, as well as a tutorial for how I do helical knitting. If you try this technique I’d love to hear about how it goes for you! I really enjoyed it and expect more projects of this sort coming in the future.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

Have you read?