Oh hi, favorite vintage Pendleton shirt! Meet my new favorite scarf. Why yes, I knitted it myself! You can too… well, if you were a person with hands you could. :) Believe me, anyone can learn to knit at any age or with either hand. Read on to learn a little bit about my sometimes-painful ambidextrous knitting journey.

Supplies

430+ yds fingering weight yarn appropriate knitting needles a stitch marker scissors this pattern

Directions (kinda)

Since I didn’t design this pattern, I will first and foremost point you all to the person who did. The pattern is called Reversible Circles of Lace and I found it on a blog called Olives and Mermaids and Wine, Oh My. It’s an intermediate-level knitting pattern that was really fun to do. The finished scarf is completely reversible (so no inside to worry about – both sides look essentially the same), which makes it nice for bundling up with. My biggest tip for knitting this pattern is to use your stitch markers. The pattern is a repeating set of 12 rows. Particularly if you’re using a fine yarn as recommended, it can be hard to keep track of what row you’re on. But if you’re a total pro, you probably won’t need the markers at all. Unlike me. :)

The yarn I used for this project was something I’d bought back at Detroit Maker Faire in the summer of 2010. It’s one of those yarns that’s really elegant – it’s 50% merino wool/50% silk, so it’s crazy soft. And the mix of browns and greys is just yummy and will match a lot of outfits. The shop who made it, hands+notions, appears to no longer be in business, but I LOVED working with this yarn. So soft!

On a personal note, this was my first “hard” left-handed knitting project. I’m a natural righty, but I struggle with tendinitis issues from my music days, particularly when I knit a lot. Finishing this project took me a long time since it was a lace pattern done with size 4 US knitting needles using a fine yarn… and my non-dominant hand. I’m really proud of how it turned out, with only one hiccup in the pattern that I gracefully hid in the pictures, and I’m now a totally valid left-handed knitter. It’s ironic because the Grandma who taught me how to knit is a lefty who learned to knit from a righty and originally taught me to knit right-handed when I was 8. Don’t tell her, but this lovely scarf is headed her way for Christmas this year. I couldn’t think of anyone else more perfect to give this scarf to (other than maybe myself). ;)

One must mean mug while modeling knitwear, right?

Want to learn to knit from square one? Or looking to teach a kid to knit for the first time? Check out my tutorial on how to loom knit for uber-beginners.