The There and Back Again Scarf Project of Insanity

I’ve been so busy getting ready for class that I haven’t had a time to talk about my current insane knitting project. I had a vague hope of getting it done by the end of third term, and at the rate I’m going it looks like this will be a real possibility. So, here is the story on the There and Back Again

While cruising Ravelry awhile back, I found a double knitting scarf that had the names of the Doctor (Doctor Who) in Galafrayan script. I thought it was cool, but as it wasn’t free and I’ve never done double knitting I queued it for future reference and moved on. Then, the nerdy knitting podcast I listen to talked about the There and Back Again Story Scarf. I realized that it was by the same person, and I became very intrigued. Well, one thing lead to another, and in a fit of crazy one Saturday morning this term break I looked up double knitting tutorials on-line, took a deep breath, and plunged off the deep end.

What is double knitting you might ask? It’s a technique where you create a double layer of fabric with each row you knit. In fact, you’re simultaneously knitting a row on the front and purling a row on the back with every row you work. This means that you have two different working yarns which you have to keep flipping back and forth, and leads itself quite nicely to this sort of detailed colorwork pattern. The two sides are mirrored colors; my favorite is the side with the gray background.

I have to admit that my first row was a special kind of crazy—it took me awhile to figure out how I was going to manage the two colors and which hand would carry which yarn, but eventually I feel into the rhythm of the thing and I was HOOKED. I finished the first two charts in one week! That’s 160 rows of double knitting if you’re counting…which I’m not!

In the week before school started I finished the third chart,

And this week I’m well into the fourth. How many charts are there you ask? Ten and a bit!

The thing I love about double knitting is that each row is a reward in itself because of the pattern you can see emerging, and that this makes very complex patterns possible in a way that fair isle and intarsia just don’t. I have some other charts that I have some ideas bubbling over in my head for—tree of Gondor hotpads anyone? That being said, this is NOT staff meeting knitting, and so I’m still plugging away on some more mundane socks. Gotta have some excitement in my world...