My doodle scarf is done. Blocked and everything. It ended up being about 16 inches across and just under nine feet long. I ended up using a variant of the double YO “Dewdrops” edging (found in Sharon Miller’s fantastic Heirloom Knitting) instead of the item that prompted the last two posts:

I also played with the main diamond motif – alternating ones with the full pierced centers with ones that filled in the center-most four diamonds. I chose the edging because the structure replicated the mesh in the pierced diamonds. I also took the lazy way out on the corners. Rather than calculate the miter, I just went around the edges, doubling up on my rate of attachment to make enough fullness to ease around the 90-degree angle. Elder Daughter has poached this one for her very own. But (to quote someone I ran into in the airport while I was working on this last week). “You’re a sneaky parent. How much of a Goth air can it provide when the wearer has to ‘fess up that “My mom knit it for me” whenever she’s asked?”

I’m thinking of doing matching fingerless mittens – something relatively long, perhaps between matinee and elbow length (that works out to mid-forearm, for those of you too young to remember formal gloves), with the pierced diamond motif on the back of the hand. I’m pretty sure that Elder Daughter would swoon for those. Especially if I can get them finished before Halloween.

In a somewhat related topic – yesterday’s post brought a comment from Lace Goddess Nurhanne, she of Yarn Over. She’s got the original book that the edging I’ve been posting about is from, AND she can read German. She says that I did miss something in the accompanying text. Her comment read “I don’t have the Lacis book, but an original 1921 copy in which the accompanying text instructs you to work even rows 2-16: yo, k to end with k1p1 in double yo. Even rows 18-32: k2tog, k to end with k1p1 in double yo.”

I had posited the “make it up on the wrong side” method back when I began experimenting. It looks like the original pattern took that approach. I need to experiment though to see if adding/subtracting those stitches at the leftmost edge (the beginning of the row for even numbered/wrong side rows) works. But I am a bit leery of that approach. I think that putting adds/deletes there will interfere with the patterned repeat, but I’m willing to try it out. I’m tickled to have another opportunity to learn something new. Especially if I’m sitting chela at the feet of someone who really knows this stuff.

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