Easy Knitting Patterns

“Wavy” is one of my favorite easy knitting patterns created by someone else. I have made it twice, both times in Caron’s Simply Soft yarn. (Six sets of 44 rows takes about 8 oz of Simply Soft. I used #8 needles.) To me, this yarn seems reminiscent of cotton embroidery floss. I love the little bit of sheen it has, along with the softness and drape. The only problem I have with this pattern is keeping track of what row I’m on. (The pattern has 44 rows that can be repeated 6 or 7 times to make the full scarf.) Which leads me to the real topic of this article: how to not lose your place when you’re easily distracted (or, in other words, when your brain is starting to turn to mush).

There is no shortage of ideas for counting rows out there. Forty years ago, my mom used the kind of row counter that slides onto a straight needle. They still make those. Personally, I found them very annoying because of the way they make one needle significantly heavier than the other. I guess it would be okay to put one on the cord of a circular needle, but I’ve never actually tried that.

Then there’s the kind I’ve been using recently. It looks like a little rectangular box with a push button on top and dials on the sides. It works just fine, although I don’t like to be bothered with keeping track of it (plus the row pattern) when I’m on the road.

The third solution was something I saw described in a blog comment somewhere. (Unfortunately, I didn’t copy down the reference. It was before I decided to start my own blog.) This commenter said she gets a tiny 2”x3” notebook for each pattern. She writes the directions for one row on one page. So if it’s a 44-row pattern, she uses 44 pages. Then as she knits, she just turns the page. That’s a great alternative to carrying both a pattern chart and a row counter. I’m guessing for safety’s sake you’d also want to put a paper clip on the page where you stopped before putting away your work.

But the problem with all three of these methods is that you have to have the presence of mind to remember if you actually turned the dial, pushed the button, or turned the page. I can’t remember how many times in the course of making two Wavy scarves when I thought to myself, “Did I push the button or not?” There were just too many times when I was distracted between rows. So I’d have to stop and look at the last couple rows I did and compare them to the pattern to figure out where I was. And, for each scarf, I managed to make a mistake. The green one ended up with two extra rows (or maybe four), and the pink one ended up with the pattern being flipped when I missed one row.

So next time I make this pattern, I’m going to add yet another layer of row-count protection. I tried this with a baby blanket and it’s definitely a time saver. On Wavy, I’m going to put a piece of scrap yarn between every 4^th row. (Insert the yarn between the rows like fringe: fold a four- to six-inch piece of yarn in half; using a crochet hook, pull the loop through the edge of your knitting between rows; pull the ends through the loop.)

Not only that, I’ll use five colors of scrap yarn in a rainbow (red-orange-yellow-green-blue). So once I get through all the colors, I’ll know I’ve done 20 rows without even having to count the fringe. Then I’ll use each color a second time to get to 40. Four more rows and I’m at 44. I’ll mark the end of the set of 44 with black or white and start over, re-using the scraps from before. But I’ll leave in the black or white pieces so I’ll know how many repeats of the pattern I’ve done.

Back when I was doing Total Quality in the corporate world (eons ago), we called this “Manage by Prevention.” But now I think of it as planning to be semi-brain-dead. Anyhow, try making Sarah Smith’s Wavy scarf knitting pattern and let me know how you do.

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