vertical scarf fringe?

[emling]

Yet ANOTHER possibility that hasn't been suggested yet is this--it's labor-intensive, but I can imagine it might look pretty cool:

1. Crochet several long chains with a small needle using a fairly lightweight yarn--sportweight or baby weight should do the trick. All of the chains should be the same length (I'm thinking 3 yards or so--but you'd have to experiment), and in different colors
2. Cast on using a chain as your 'yarn'. I'd use the knitted cast on method, or some other method that leaves the cast on tail at the beginning of the cast on row. The cast on tail should be as long as you want your fringe to be. Stop casting on stitches when the remaining chain is fringe length.
3. Turn your work, and join a different colored chain, again leaving a fringe-lentgh tail.  Knit to the end of the row. You'll probably want to knot the fringe 'tails' together in some way so your edges are neat, and so nothing works loose.
4. Repeat with remaining chains, until the scarf is as wide as you want it to be, bind off.

Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe I should give this a try.  I always like the idea of manufacturing your own yarn, whether it's from cut up fabric, spinning your own wool, or using left-over yarn in a creative way. I made a kick-butt bathroom rug out of some of my husband's old t-shirts once, and it was gratifying to see a project from the yarn-creation stage to the end.

[melidomi]

Ok, guys, I was lucky (?) enough to see a scarf like this in person, where I could pull at it, touch it, and examine it closely.  And now I'm fascinated/obsessed.  I'm pretty sure I've figured out the basic idea behind it, but not all the details.  and let me tell you, you'd have to be insane to copy this by hand, but I'm probably going to try it out a little to see if I can figure out the last details.

Ok, so each fringe piece is 4 stitch icord (in tiny yarn on tiny needles.)  So you need to start by making a bunch of icords as long as you want your fringe.  You need 2 icords for each solid color verticle stripe.  It looks like the scarf here has the color sequence WYBPTYPBT
(W=white, Y= yellow, B= blue, P= pink, T= turquoise)
So you'd lay out your icords like so: WWYYBBPPTTYYPPBBTT - the first letter of each pair is in set A, and the second is in set B
Then you join these icords together in some fancy way (this is where the details get fuzzy)so that on alternate rows  (or pairs of rows?) you're working alternate sets of icords.  (here the lowercase letters represent the individual stitches of one side of each icord, so ww are both part of one W)
wwyybbppttyyppbbttw w  (set A)
 wwyybbppttyyppbbttw w  (set B)
 and do something like Beppycat's double sided stockinette (but making sure that the two sides are locked together all the way across somehow) for the body of the scarf.  The key, however, is that you're kind of alternating which half of the icords you're working on.  So for the first 2 rows you work set A, the second 2 rows you work set B, you continue alternating in this manner until you get to the end of the scarf, and then you switch back to individual icords)

This will make the verticle stripes - the really interesting thing about the stripes is that they're not solid.  They go *solid, interleaved, repeat from *.  Where "interleaved" means the stitches in the column alternate colors. 

I'm going to be looking into this problem more (probably after christmas) later.  I may have to break down and buy the scarf as a reference!  I just find this so interesting in a 'theoretical knitting' kind of way.  My grip on sanity is definitely getting more tenuous

[couturekitten]

I was going to say, couldn't you just knit each row as its own entity, leaving the tail on each end and the sew them together?  I know that would be a lot more work than crochet but it gives you the nice knit texture.  Just a thought 

[svava]

I made my bf's mom a vertical stripe with knitted fringe for x-mas.  Each stripe starts as its own entity then joins for the body of the scarf (intarsia color work) and separates into separate little strips for the fringe on the opposite end.  I used a pattern from Interweave Knits (don't remember which issue).  It was rather tedious being fingering weight yarns and on #2 needles... but the finished product was well worth it.

[ilovepaper]

and let me tell you, you'd have to be insane to copy this by hand,

'nuff said... maybe I'll just buy one. I've been questioning my sanity lately anyway.
I'd love to see how it comes out if anyone tries it.

[littleone1098]

I was going to say, couldn't you just knit each row as its own entity, leaving the tail on each end and the sew them together?  I know that would be a lot more work than crochet but it gives you the nice knit texture.  Just a thought 

thus defeating the purpose of not buying circular needles.......unles s you just did it like...4 stitches across on straights, but that would take FOREVER too much turning! That's a good idea though.

[gretchen28]

i own this scarf... there's no way it's knitted. it's machine-made all the way, probably in china.

 i think it was $28 or something... you should just buy it.  and save yourself the insanity

[littleone1098]

i own this scarf... there's no way it's knitted. it's machine-made all the way, probably in china.

 i think it was $28 or something... you should just buy it. and save yourself the insanity

I think it's kind of fun trying to figure it out, you feel very proud when you finally get it done. Plus, I would personally never pay close to thirty bucks on a scarf, especially if I knew there was a way I could figure out how to make it...but, I'm cheap, soooo

[melidomi]

The one I saw, my friend said she got for $7, so I may buy one if I can find it at that price, just so that I can have a reference when figuring it out.  I am insane enough to want to really figure it out, so stay tuned.  I may get to this sometime after christmas and post a tute!

[gretchen28]

i own this scarf... there's no way it's knitted. it's machine-made all the way, probably in china.

 i think it was $28 or something... you should just buy it. and save yourself the insanity

I think it's kind of fun trying to figure it out, you feel very proud when you finally get it done. Plus, I would personally never pay close to thirty bucks on a scarf, especially if I knew there was a way I could figure out how to make it...but, I'm cheap, soooo

my point is, it is not knitted.  it is machine woven. you can spin your wheels all you like trying to figure it out... but you can't turn an apple into an orange.   it also has 15 different colors in it... even if you buy the cheap stuff (like i do cause i have no money either) there's no way you're going to spend less than $28.   

if you want to make a vertically-striped scarf that is self fringing... that's another story.   i have made them before and they do turn out wonderfully...  my friend kyra in fact just finished a huge menswear scarf using this same method... http://kyra.typepad.com/knitmeister/2004/12/the_scarf_in_ny.html

get some really long circs (40" or so) and cast on somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 stitches.  when you come to the end of a row, leave a 7" tail and cut it.  begin each row with a 7" tail as well.  once the scarf is the length you want, tie every other tail together and voila-- fringe.