Highway 30 to Sock Summit

On our drive to Sock Summit, I finished another pooling scarf, just in time to give it to one of my Ravelry friends.


The pattern matches my yarn really well, and I love how each leaf got its own colour, thanks to the pooling effect. It's made with one skein of Socks that Rock, in the Highway 30 colourway. Edited to add -- 360 yards of STR in lightweight makes a 7 foot long scarf.

I've posted these photos to Ravelry, and promised that I'd have the pattern up by the weekend. So here you go!


Highway 30 Pooling Scarf

Lay out your yarn so that you can see how it will pool. In this case, I'm planning to use just half a loop of each skein for each row. In the photo below, you can see how my yarn translates into my first few garter rows. If I start my cast-on from the left side of the skein, then when I come back, the other half of the skein will stack its colours on top of my cast-on.


Using US 7 needles and beginning at one end of your skein, cast on 43 stitches with the backwards loop, or "e" cast-on. This is the most annoying part of your scarf, because the first row after this cast-on is slippery, and you're still juggling your gauge to try to get the colours to line up. Don't worry if you're off by a couple of stitches — it'll work out later as long as you're close on your gauge.

Knit 6 rows in garter stitch (knit every row). If your gauge is close to mine, you'll want to knit these rows fairly loosely. (I find that my knit-only rows take up less yarn than my lace rows, which in turn take up less yarn than my purl rows.)

Knit the lace chart, which is the Coat of Arms Lace from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary. If your gauge is tighter or looser than mine, feel free to add or subtract garter stitches to your edging to get your yarn to pool properly. (Click on the chart to make it bigger for printing.)


At this point, you may also want to switch your "purl" needle to be one size smaller than your "knit" needle. I knit with an interchangeable needle set, so at this point I just switch out one of my needles so that I have a US 7 on my knit rows and a US 6 on my purl rows. This is because for most knitters, the purl stitch uses up a little bit more yarn than the knit stitch, just because of how we wrap it around the needle.

Follow the chart until you're done with knitting on your scarf. It'll be about 7 feet long if you use one full skein of Socks that Rock lightweight. End with a Row #1.

Do six rows of garter stitch (knit every row) and bind off.


Wet-block to stretch out all of your lovely lace work, and give it to your friend. (Hi, Nikki!)

And thank your co-blogger for actually getting a photo that turned out of Nikki wearing the scarf. (Thanks, Dotty!)