archaeology...

I was digging up bones and my knitting room is littered with scraps of false starts! The red lace weight alpaca I was planning to use was either breaking randomly - not sure whether certain balls of that yarn were just like that - not very strong or what,  but my first attempt got me to about row 40 and then everything dropped. The next one, I got to about row 150 and it all fell because the yarn broke again. I then tried adding in a very thin spandex/lycra thread as a binder. The first one was ivory and it worked but the colour showed too much. I had a grey lycra that worked nicely and blended well, so I started again with that and got to about row 200 when the red alpaca broke halfway across, but I couldn't rehang from just the lycra. I abandoned that idea and yarn and switched to the red cotton from my last scarf (Quilted Northern). I was zipping along and about row 500 I messed up and instead of just switching the ribber tension dial, I flipped up the set lever (like for circular knitting -what was I thinking???) and on the second pass, it began dropping off the ribber stitches! Fudge, honey and sugar! I quit for the day!
I began again this morning with a fresh perspective and knocked the whole scarf off in an hour. It's pretty easy once you learn to count to 25 and you're fresh! There are built-in signals between times to change it up. There are always 5 rows of the pintuck, beginning on the right. Then, with the carriage at left, switch the rib dial back to main tension and set to tuck. The first row of each tuck section is a plain row and even if you forget to switch back to tuck it knits both beds anyway because of the plain row in the stitch pattern. The sound of the carriage should alert you to change. At the end of the 23 rows of  tuck patterning, there is another plain row, to eliminate any tucks and make the pintuck clean and you should notice a change in the sound the carriage makes between the tuck rows - the tick, tick tick of the tucks - and then solid, (no ticks) for the plain. So I'm calling the May ribber scarf:
Archaeology Scarf  (Red Scarf  for Aids Awareness)
Machine: 4.5mm standard gauge with ribber. Knit on Silver Reed 580/SRP60N
Yarn: red 2 ply (3/14) cotton,  2900m/350g (would be T2-3 stockinette) or any light weight yarn that knits a full needle rib comfortably.
Gauge: Not really critical but 50 sts and 60 rows of tuck and pintuck as above, T4/4 = 15 cm X 13 cm.
Insert close knit bar. See previous post for stitch chart.
Punchcard: punch in reverse to shown: make holes for all the white squares and leave black squares unpunched. Add double row of holes top and bottom to join card. SilverReed punchcard: Lock card on row 1. Read card. CAR. Unlock card. *Set cam lever to slip, side levers to triangle. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. SilverReed electronic: make mylar as shown, lite #1 right is on, N1 cam at 0, point cams at edge of ns in work. *set to S/J (slip). T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. Brother electronic: enter as shown and use KHC light on, to select opposite needles for patterning. *Both slip buttons in. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set both tuck buttons in to tuck, T4/4, K25R*.
Repeat this *-* 30 row sequence throughout for all machines.

Bring 25-0-25 ns to work on main bed. Set to H5 and bring ns on ribber to work so outside ns are on ribber - one more than knit bed. Cast waste yarn in zigzag, hang comb and 1 large weight. Knit several rows, ending CAR. Switch to circular for the ravel cord, K2R. Cancel circular. RC000. Main yarn, T1/1, K1R. Rack to H4, T2/2, K1R. Rack back to H5. T3/3, K1R. T4/4, knit in FNR to RC010. CAR. Download pattern (read punchcard or set up for pattern knitting as above). Knit 840 rows or desired length (150 cm/5 ft) and end with last pintuck. FNR, T3/3, K7R. T2/2, K1R. T1/1, K1R, ending CAL. Transfer all to main bed. Measure out 3X width of ns in work, cut yarn and backstitch cast off (or do the one you like best from the previous scarves). Darn in ends.
If you have any questions or problems, please email me at knitwords@shaw.ca

Analysis: This is a very cool fabric, quite stretchy width-wise, compared to last one! I love the mixed textures and I'll be using it again for something, maybe a slouchy pullover in a lightweight cotton or alpaca - it has a good width to it and the resulting fabric is relatively thin and lightweight with good body...or I could break out the WCD again...
Red scarf for Aids Awareness count: 6