Harry Potter Inspired Winter Scarf

For your favorite half-blood prince, this scarf uses an inspired blend of Griffindor red and gold with muggle grey to create a double thick and warm scarf for those spooky winter nights when Diagon Alley is a long bus ride away.

The scarf is 8” wide by 64” long and knitted as a tube. Instructions for single thickness and longer versions at end of pattern.

Supplies:

Yarn: worsted weight yarn, 2 skeins each of grey, gold, red. The heathery “rag wool” grey in this scarf is an inexpensive wool/acrylic blend: Lion Brand Wool-Ease. The color stripes can be any similar worsted weight yarn that doesn't itch! (more Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Patons Classic Wool, or Red Heart Soft Yarn). I was looking for something that wouldn't itch. For longer version, purchase additional skein of each color.

Knitting needles: 16” circular needles.

Guage: 5 stitches/inch

Pattern: Knit in in the round in stockingknit stitch throughout. Follow stripe order below.

To start cast on 84 stitches with grey yarn and join, being careful not to twist the round. Follow chart below for color order.

Grey: knit even for 8 inches.

Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Repeat alternating gold and grey stripes 6 times ending with a grey row.

Red: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Red: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows

Red: 6 rows Gold: 6 rows

Red: 8.5 inches

Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Red: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows

Red: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Repeat alternating red and grey stripe 5 times.

Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows (For longer scarf add 8.5 inches of red here, followed by 10 stripes of alternating red and grey.)

Grey: 5 ¼ inches

Gold: 6 rows Grey: 5 rows Gold: 6 rows

Grey: 5 inches. (Not long enough? Add 10 (or more!) alternating stripes of red and greyfollowed by one long section of grey.)

Bind off using larger needles.

To finish, turn inside out and weave in loose ends. Turn right side out. Sew up ends.

For fringe use double strands of yarn alternating grey with gold and then red yarns. Insert crochet hook through end edge of scarf, loop two strands around hook, pull through and then insert ends through loop.

Variations

Single Thickness Scarf

To make a lighter weight scarf, cast on 48 stitches and work on straight needles in rib of knit 1, purl 1 throughout to prevent curling edges. It will give the project a ribbed look that varies with how tightly you knit. I have never been happy with the edge treatments that I have found (i.e. slip last stitch) when using straight stockingknit stitch. If you are using wool, you can block the final result, acrylic yarns do not block as well.

Longer Scarf

Purchase additional skein of each color used. You will need them if doing double thick tube pattern.

If you know from the get go that you want it longer add 8.5 inch wide stripe of solid red, followed by 10 alternating stripes of red and grey where indicated in the pattern.

If you are uncertain how long you want the scrarf, knit as written and when you get to the end, add 10 or more additional alternating stripes of red and grey ending with a long section (8” plus or minus) of solid grey.

Handy Tip

To avoid a jig jog where the stripes change colors: remember you are knitting in the round, so knit one whole row of your new color and when you get to your starting point again, in that first stitch of the row, pick up the previous colored stitch below it PLUS that stitch and knit the two stitches together. Got that? There are several U-tube videos that explain it very well. Good luck!

Key Fob/Lanyard Tutorial

So what do you do with that ginormous pile of odds and ends you have left over from your latest most brilliant project? 

  

You turn it into something small and cute and useful, of course! Then you either attempt to sell it on Etsy or give it away as gifts to everyone you know. The following project is for making key fobs/lanyards. You can make them in any length. If they are short they are fobs. If they are long they are lanyards. Easy. You pick the length and the style of hardware you put on the end. Instead of the "clam shell" clasps I have used here, you can sub in D-rings or key rings instead.

For this project you will need some of the above scraps, any flavor or color, interfacing, and some hardware to hang a key, id badge or whatever on. For interfacing, I use a lot of Pellon Décor Bond 809. There are always a zillion scraps of this that I can't bear to throw out.

I cut the fabric into 4 inch wide strips which I fold in half and iron. Then I cut 2 strips of fusible interfacing into 7/8 inch wide strips which are shorter than your fabric by 3/4” on each end.

 

I fuse the interfacing to the fabric along that center fold. Making the interfacing in two pieces makes a crisper fold along the edge which is easier to fold and also gives you some fudge factor when ironing.When using fusibles I always use a pressing cloth to protect my ironing board surface and my iron, which is harder to clean! Here I used a product called "Goddess Sheets" available at your local sewing or quilting center.

I iron each edge to the inside and then iron both together. You get the idea!

Then I top stitch along the edges. I use a width that aligns with a convenient mark on my presser foot! (See below!) Easy. Your presser foot may have a similar convenient mark. I think mine measures at something less than 1/4” and more than 1/8”, likely a European metric invention. Be sure to lengthen the stitch length. This will make it look prettier. On a European machine the regular stitch length is 2.2. Increase this to 2.6 or so. 

 

Next I slide the clasp/D-ring/key ring hardware or whatever onto the fabric. Make sure that the hardware and the good side of the fabric are both facing to the inside.

  

Sew the ends together at a ¼ to 3/8 “ seam allowance. Go back and forth several times for added strength. This is where that previous step where you made the interfacing shorter than the pretty fashion fabric comes in handy. There will be less bulk at this point and it will handle better.

 

Turn the project inside (good side) out. Slide your hardware to the end and arrange the seam so it's about 1 inch in from the end and open this seam out flat.

Stitch in the ditch along this seam, back and forth several times. Again, since there is less interfacing , everything lies nice and flat.

 Don't forget to tidy up those pesky threads!

 

 Viola! Now you are done!