Working on something special | Infinity scarf

I'm throwing myself in at the deep end here a bit.  I'm currently working on something special for a Christmas present for a certain someone, but it's taking a bit longer than I'd hoped.

I may be being slightly ambitious with this pattern as it's a pretty complex, lace knit design - definitely a giant leap from my Knitted Shreddy first attempt at knitting.

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I've made things even more complicated for myself because the pattern I'm using, which I found on Nancy Wyatt's blog K2Tog, calls for UK size 9 circular needles.  I spent hours trying to follow the pattern using normal, straight knitting needles and getting in a complete mess until I realised that circular needles doesn't mean that the needles themselves are cylindrical... oops.  Clearly I am still extremely amateur.  I don't have circular needles, so I'm using normal knitting needles, which means I've had to adjust the pattern slightly with the help of my expert-knitter mum.

 This is what it should look like when it's done (if it gets done), except in a deep, midnight blue.

I got my wool from a sweet little shop called Wool Palette on the Broadway in Plymstock.  They have a modest range of wools, but the quality is gorgeous and I'm pretty sure they hold regular knitting workshop.

Infinity Scarf Knitting Pattern

This is the pattern that I'm doing, slightly different to Nancy's, but this is for straight knitting needles whereas Nancy's is for circular knitting needles.

Firstly I started by casting on 39 stitches, which will hopefully give me  a decent width for the scarf.

Row 1

After casting on, the first row will just be plain knit stitch all the way along.  Make sure you still have 39 stitches when you get to the end ... which I never do because I'm pretty awful at this still.

Row 2

Knit 3, Yarn over, Slip 1, Knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over, yarn over and repeat until you only have three remaining stitches to Knit 3 at the end.

Row 3

This is another plain knit row, so basically every other row is going to be plain knit.

Row 4

This time, to try and emphasise the small holes - miniature leaf pattern - this row will begin with Knit 6, Yarn over, Slip 1, Knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over,  Yarn over, Knit 3 and repeat the Knit 3 pattern from Row 2 until you have only 6 stitches remaining to Knit 6 to the end of the row.

To make it easier, this is the pattern written out in a code of sorts:

Row 1: K

Row 2: K3, YO, Slip 1, K2 together, PS, YO and repeat to K3

Row 3: K

Row 4: K6, YO, Slip 1, K2 together, PS, YO and repeat Row 2 until K6

Repeat these four rows until the scarf is the desired length and then attach the two ends to one another by sewing or knitting ( I haven't got to that bit yet so I'm not sure how's best to do).

I did a practice couple of rows on a separate piece of wool and it didn't turn out too well, I found that the Yarn over stitch needs to be left quite loose to allow the holes in the pattern to form.  When knitting the plain knit rows of Row 1 and Row 3, make sure that you knit left to right through the back of the Yarn over stitches.  This took a bit of getting used to because you normally knit through the front stitch.

I thoroughly recommend a large glass of wine while you get stuck in. Just me? 

PS

Update on my clumsiness that I extensively listed in my last post: I started a new job this week, writing for a living :))), and with the horrendous floods that have been going on round the country this week, it took me and hour and a half to get to work on my third day.  So, I was half an hour late and then proceeded to smash a colleagues coffee cup when trying to make everyone drinks ... great first week!