Tuesday 22 October 2013

Patons Big Fab yarn band scarf.

At work we sell Patons Big Fab yarn - it's really popular as it is gorgeously thick and chunky, in a lovely range of colours, is buy 2 get the 3rd free (at this very moment in time) and it comes with a free pattern for a snood/scarf on the ball band - bonus!

Except, that free pattern is driving everyone nuts.  No one can seem to work out how it is done.  So off I was sent home with a ball, to work it out.

The pattern is thus:

Basic Pattern: Alt k1, p1; work 1 yarn-over before each stitch. On all foll rows work sts as they appear and a yarn-over before each stitch, let the yarn-overs of previous row slide off the needle. 

Ok, so I cast on the 24 stitches and set off - all I managed to do was get yarn wound round the needle in a criss cross of confusion.  Pull it out, start again.  Same, and yet again, same.

Time to Google, wondering just how many other people are having issues with this pattern.  A lot it seems, there are questions all over knitting forums asking how to work it out.  Phew, at least it's not me being a bit dim.

It's a drop stitch pattern, I can see that and I have done plenty of drop-stitch scarves in my time, but this one is just not working!

My Google search found out that the original pattern had been translated from German - badly - so it has been re-written, you can find it HERE.

I did this, but if you don't concentrate fully (ie, watch X-Factor whilst knitting) and miss a couple of loops, it does throw the pattern out somewhat.

Here is an easy alternative.

  • Using 20mm needles, cast on 20 stitches. 
  • Stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row) to the end of the ball leaving enough yarn to sew the ends together. 
  • Join cast on and cast off seams together.

Shown with a 4mm crochet hook to show how mashoooive these needles are  :)


 Simples!  And so cosy and warm, you will want one in every colour for your winter wardrobe.  They hardly take any time to make either, I bashed this one up in an evening  (while watching X-Factor ;)  )

Lovely chunky stitches.


Dawn, manager of Carlisle Hobbycraft, kindly being my model :)


You can double it up as a chunky neck warmer.

Or wear it as a hood/snood.

11 comments:

  1. Yep, that free pattern has been driving me up the proverbial wall! I've frogged my poor yarn so much it's now fluffy :)

    Thanks for showing the much simpler and just as effective snood. I'm knitting it up now. Much happier and ripping back as of yet.

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    1. Excellent, send me a pic when it's done :)

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    2. must look for the original German pattern and see if it is as confusing ... Looks nice what you did with that wool ...

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  2. HI

    I knitted up 3 scarves in various colours for Xmas 2013 and had a bit of trouble working out the pattern too and found that the large needles made it all so loose it got in a terrible mess so I went down a needle size and got on OK with the drop stitch which has driven most people mad (once you've done a few rows it is easier to see the pattern emerging) except that the scarf didn't seem long enough to wrap round twice comfortably as shown on the pattern on the yarn band. As I've had requests for more this winter I've bought 2 balls of each colour and thought I'd do a hat and put the left over onto the scarf. I haven't been able to find a free hat pattern but I will give your plain stocking stitch idea a go for a pull on hat which looks as if it will be a really good match.

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    1. Thanks for that Barbara, nice to see the design is still around this year :)

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  3. Hi Rae, I just whip stitch the stitches together, just making sure I put my sewing needle through only one piece of yarn and matching it on the other side so it doesn't bulk up too much.
    Does this make sense?

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  4. Have a look at this :)
    http://www.knittingdaily.com/glossary/whipstitch/

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  5. Many, many thanks for clearing this up for me.

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  6. Thanks for this. Just started knitting this gorgeous snood! Would love a bobble hat to go with it. Have you ever tried a hat with size 20 needles? I'm new to knitting so grateful for any advice/ recommendations

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    1. It would be quite a loose stitch hat, you could try it on a smaller needled, 10mm, see how that works out.

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