Knitting an Alphabet Scarf

By twickster

Skill level: Easy

Finished size: Approximately108″ x 7.5″

Gauge: 1″ = 6 stitches and 6 rows in stockinette

Materials:

• Approximately 600 yards worsted weight yarn. I used KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Tidepool Heather. (I bought eight 110-yard skeins and used about five and a half of them, so will have enough left over to knit up a matching hat.)
• Size 7 needles (or size that gives correct gauge)
• Markers
• Charted alphabet. I used Glasgow 25 Upper Case from Alphabets Elegant and Unusual by Tink Boord-Dill. She has since written a bunch of additional books, including some specifically for knitting.

Overview:

The alphabet is presented sideways along the scarf’s length, so you are knitting the letters top-to-bottom along your working needle. The scarf includes a seed stitch border all the way around and four stitches of stockinette above and below the letters, plus four rows of stockinette between letters.

Instructions:

1. Decide what you want to spell out. My creative starting point was “the alphabet,” which turned out to require a ridiculously long scarf — luckily, I love long scarves. For a scarf of similar length or longer, you could also do a phrase of 25-30 letters (e.g., “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” = 27 letters; “the weather outside is frightful” = 28 letters). If you want something in a less dramatic — or just more manageable — length, you could do a first (or first and last) name or a repeated monogram.

2. Find an appropriate charted alphabet. You need one that is at least three or four stitches wide/deep for most strokes — anything with thinner lines won’t show up in the brocade effect.

The pamphlet I used came from my library of needlework books. This particular pamphlet has 40 alphabets, a half dozen of which would work well for this project. I haven’t seen any of the other books the wonderfully monikered Tink Boord-Dill has compiled. (I have since looked online for free charts and didn’t see anything I thought would work.)

A note on charts: Many charted alphabets are based on a square stitch, such as those in cross-stitch or needlepoint. A knitting stitch is slightly rectangular — taller than it is wide — so it will distort the forms of the letters in square-based charts. Specifically, in knitting you end up stretching the letters slightly side-to-side when the letters run sideways, as in the project described here. Knitting top-to-bottom along the length of the scarf would stretch the letters slightly top-to-bottom.

3. Get an enlarged photocopy of the chart that you can mark up as you’re working. I used a copy at 200%, which was big enough to be easily readable.

4. Analyze the depth (top to bottom) of the field you’ll need for the alphabet you use. If you’re using an all-upper-case alphabet, it’s probably charted at a depth that is consistent for all 26 letters. If you’re using a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, though, you’ll start with the “bottom line” on which the letters will run — think of lined paper, with all of the letters touching that line and some extending below it (the “g” and the “j,” for instance). You’ll need to calculate the full depth with those “below the line” letters taken into consideration.

5. Divide the total number of stitches for the alphabet into sections of no more than 9 stitches. This makes it easier to keep track of your count as you’re working. For example, my all-upper-case alphabet was charted at 25 stitches, so I broke it into sections of 8, 9, and 8 stitches. Nine is convenient for counting because you’re usually counting no more than 5 — e.g., you’ll find yourself counting to “2 before the next marker” instead of “7.”

6. Using a ruler and red ink, mark the lines separating your sections on the working photocopy of the chart.

7. Mark alternating rows: the right-side rows will start at the bottom, or right, of your chart and the wrong-side rows at the top, or left. [See the photo at right for what the marked-up chart looks like.]

8. Having determined the total depth in number of stitches, add 4 stitches on each side for the background plus 5 stitches on each side for the border, to form another 9-stitch section on either side of your letters. If you want a wider, more shawllike scarf, add more background stitches or more border stitches.

9. Cast on the total number of stitches (depth of letter field, plus background/borders) that you’ve calculated. In my scarf, that was 43 stitches total (25 stitches + 9 + 9). As you cast on, place markers to divide the sections you calculated in step 5. I used four markers in all:

9 * 8 * 9 * 8 * 9

The first 9-stitch section is the border and background; the next 3 sections are the 25 stitches for the alphabet chart; the last section is background and border.

10. Knit 5 rows in seed stitch, a K1/P1 stitch in which you knit in all the purls and purl in all the knits. If you have an odd number of stitches, every row will start with a knit stitch.

11. Starting with the next row, knit 4 “blank” rows in stockinette stitch. Every row begins with 5 stitches in seed stitch (K-P-K-P-K), then knitting the right-side rows and purling the wrong-side rows, ending with 5 stitches in seed stitch.

12. Consult the chart for the first letter: starting with a right-side row, knit the background stitches (shown in the chart as blank squares) and purl the letter stitches (shown in the chart filled in). On wrong-side rows, you’ll purl for background and knit for letters. NOTE: All rows begin and end with 5 seed stitches.

13. After completing the first letter, do 4 more “blank” rows, as described in step 11.

14. Repeat steps 12 and 13 for subsequent letters. If you’re doing something with spaces between words (line from a song, full name), use 8 blank rows between the words.

15. After you’ve completed the full alphabet, phrase, or name, knit a final 4 “blank” rows, then end with 5 rows of seed stitch.

16. Bind off.

17. Block. If you’ve got a very long scarf you can do this on a bed, pinning it across the diagonal if necessary.

Author’s note: Many thanks to the knitters of the SDMB, who were generous with their expertise in this thread while I was trying to figure out the strategy for this project. Thanks also to amarinth, who was kind enough to critique a draft of this article from the point of view of an experienced knitter. Any errors that remain are, of course, my own..