My next door neighbor’s son, Colin, turns 3 years old on Monday. Until late this morning, he had no idea that his mom and I were cooking up a surprise for him in the form of a handmade scarf. Mom said it shouldn’t be too long because she didn’t want it to wrap around his neck too many times. She also said he preferred a neutral color – something in cream or beige tones. The main thing was that it be appropriate for a little boy. What? No crocheted rosettes? Guess not.
Thank you stash deities for the machine-washable aran weight Jaeger Matchmaker still in the original packaging. Perfect color and weight. I never gave a thought to searching for a pattern. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been on a seed stitch tear. Since color was not the star here, I reasoned that texture would add visual interest. My only other consideration was that the pattern be reversible since being tied “just so” is not part of a child’s clothing vocabulary. This is what came off the needles on Friday:

Colin's New Scarf
Yarn: (2) 90 yd. balls of Jaeger Matchmaker (discontinued) in Light Neutral
Needles: Size 7US
Finished size: 36″ x 5″
I cast on an even number of stitches – enough to create an approximately 5″ wide scarf. After a couple of establishing garter stitch rows, I started the 4-row American Moss Stitch. Didn’t know it beforehand but there is apparently a British Moss Stitch the looks suspiciously like a 2-row seed stitch to me. Eh. What do I know.
After 11 inches, my attention wandered and I found myself flipping the yarn back and forth, doing the regular seed stitch and screwing up the nice diagonals I had going with Monsieur Moss. I gave myself a little break in the form of about 3 inches of garter stitch, then it was back to moss for 5 inches. Tack on 3 more inches of garter then end with a final 11 inches of moss stitch. If you followed the math, I knit the scarf in thirds:
11 Moss + (3 Garter + 5 Moss + 3 Garter) +11 Moss = 33 inches of scarf
A cool water Eucalan bath and some light blocking turned those 33 inches into 36 inches as the stitches relaxed and lengthened. Speaking of math, everything apparently added up correctly because I get the feeling Colin really likes his new scarf!

Happy Birthday, Colin
That’s a great scarf and he’s absolutely adorable. 🙂
Lots of beautiful texture! It looks to have been very well-received, which is always a boon to the knitter.
Hope you’re keeping warm, Karen! BTW, I really do recommend the Cooking Light website. I watch out for lightened versions of recipes that were originally very rich; those are usually disappointing. The more creative recipes that feature plenty of veggies and beans are usually the best.
Excellent kid’s scarf!!! I read somewhere that a scarf should be about as tall as the recipient — so I’m guessing you hit it very close to the mark. And he looks like he loves it!!
Peace,
Chris.
I had never gave any hand-made piece except foods for him. It was wonderful birthday gift ever and the pattern of it was special.
Thank you Karen..
Love the scarf. You can tell he likes it!
What a perfect scarf for a little boy – or anyone!
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