WIP: Sofia's scarf

When I first saw Sophie Scarf I thought how cute! But then everything looks cute on PetiteKnit, which is one of the reasons for her success, and I was perfectly aware it wouldn't look that good on me. Then, copycat patterns started appearing everywhere: a stockinette stitch version, a ribbed one, one with a pretty motif on the tips, and so on. And every time I thought, they're super cute on cute, young and thin women, but I'm neither of those things. But you know how it goes... it's like ads: no matter how annoying they're, enough repetition and you end up getting tempted.

I still wasn't tempted until recently a very similar pattern came out. I got curious about the differences between these two patterns for 2 reasons: (1) altering such an extremely simple pattern is not easy and I wanted to know how that gets done, (2) I also wanted to check how much changes you need to do in a pattern to avoid being accused of plagiarism. I was surprised at how different the two patterns actually are. From the cast-on to the frequency of the increases and decreases, the new pattern is as different as possible from the old one.

It was the difference between cast-on (and bind-off) methods in these two patterns that made me start thinking. The older pattern uses a standard cast-on/bind-off of 6 stitches and the tips of the scarf are simply two parallel i-cords. The newer scarf instead starts with an i-cord tab, thus joining the 2 i-cords in a nice way. The disadvantage of this method is that the tips of the latter scarf are rounder. I prefer the pointier tips of Sophie Scarf, but I don't like so much the way the i-cords end. So, I had an idea for a new cast-on, which I have never seen used before and that creates a pointy tip. This cast-on is great for triangular shawls knit sideways, much better than the i-cord tab. The latter is ideal if you want to start from the middle of the i-cord edge (like a triangular shawl started from the middle-point of the top edge), which is the purpose for which tab cast-ons were created. There is another advantage for this cast-on: it's simpler than the i-cord tab and involves no pick-up stitches.

In addition to experimenting my new cast-on method, I also experimented with something else which I hadn't used before in similar projects: namely, working the increases and decreases in the 3rd stitch of the selvedge, instead of the 1st stitch of the garter section. I have worked garter stitch with an i-cord edge so many times, how come I never tried this! It looks really good.

Disclaimer: I haven't bought PetiteKnit's pattern and I have no idea how similar the following pattern is. I did use publicly available data to calculate my pattern, namely: Sophie scarf's measurements. I also used the same needle size, but different yarn, and with those I happened to obtain the same gauge (not too surprising, maybe).

Pattern

A very thin triangular shawl to be used as a scarf. Worked in garter stitch with an i-cord selvedge.

Warning: this pattern is written for portuguese-style knitting, hence stitches are purled. To convert to another style: swap p with k and invert order of stitches.

Yarn: Drops Alpaca + Drops Kid-Silk held together or a DK-weight yarn (with recommended needle size 4-4.5mm).
Needles: 3.5mm.

Sizes: small (large).
Length and maximum width: approx. 80 (100) cm and 11 (13) cm.

Gauge (garter stitch): 22 stitches, 42 rows = 10 cm.

Cast-on and set-up

Using a provisional cast-on, cast-on 3 stitches.

p3, then place the other 3 stitches on the left needle, slip them together knitwise (as in a k3tog). The 6 stitches are all in one needle and, seen from either side, the 1st 3 sts are purls and the next 3 knits.

Set-up rows 1-7: p3, slwyib x3.
Set-up row 8: p2, pfb, slwyib x3.

Increase section

Rows 1-7: p to last 3 sts, slwyib x3.
Row 8: p2, pfb, p to last 3 sts, slwyib x3.

Repeat rows 1-8 up to 28 (32) sts total (or desired width).

Fixed width section (optional)

Work this section only if you want a narrower but longer scarf. Measure length of scarf before starting. The total length of the scarf will be twice that length plus the length of this section. Therefore, start next section when scarf is the desired length minus length of 1st section.

All rows: p to last 3 sts, slwyib x3.

Decrease section

Rows 1-7: p to last 3 sts, slwyib x3.
Row 8: p2, p2tog, p to last 3 sts, slwyib x3.

Work until there are 6 sts on needles, then repeat rows 1-7.

Bind-of by joining the two i-cords with Kitchener stitch.