Potato Chip Knitting

 What’s your potato chip knitting?  You know, the pattern that you just can’t stop knitting.  Like the old commercial (for Lay’s?), “betcha can’t eat just one.”  You want to keep knitting just to see how the next chunk turns out.  For some people it is cables; these people just can’t wait to see how the next cable turn looks.  For some people it’s lace.  It’s the kind of knitting that makes you say, “just one more row.  I’ll just do one more row, then I’ll go wash the dishes.”  As for me, I can’t get enough of short rows.  There’s just something about those little suckers that make me want to keep knitting to see how the next one works out.  It’s amazing how doing one little partial row then turning your work and knitting back along that short row can completely change the look of your knits.  It can create a curve where there wasn’t one before.  It can create fun little toes in socks or shaping in sweaters. 

For me, my current potato chip knitting is the Helix Scarf (pattern linked) from Spin-Off Magazine.   It’s a free pattern that was sent out in a Knitting Daily email a week or so ago.  I started thinking about the poison apple green laceweight that has been sitting in my stash waiting for a shawl.  The delicate, floaty scarf can be made in any weight of yarn and is particulary nice for handspun.  The link I have included above has several different variations on the scarf.  The pattern is somewhat cryptic, but if you cast on 30 stitches and go ahead with the wedge pattern, you’ll be on track.  The pattern in it’s entirety is in Spin Off Spring 2010.  It’s not a difficult pattern, it’s a 5 row repeat.  I don’t know what I find fascinating about it, but I love doing the little short rows.  I can’t wait to see what happens when I do just one more pattern repeat. 

I believe this scarf is going to an old friend that I haven’t seen in a very long time.  This person replied to a Pay It Forward post on Facebook.  The idea is that 5 people would respond to my post and I would create a handmade item for each of them.  They in turn would have to make things for 5 other people.  I got the idea from my friend Knittymuggins.  This is the first of my 5 items, and I hope the potato chip knitting sustains me through the entire scarf.