When We Are Knitters released their Autumn Collection I fell in love with two items in particular. The Canal Sweater and the Ranta Scarf. I haven’t made a scarf since I put a ban on scarf making when I decided to learn how to knit “properly” at the beginning of the year but this one was different. First off it’s a triangle, secondly it’s knit in a lace stitch and thirdly, uumm have you seen it? IT’S GORGEOUS! Still, £67 for a scarf did seem a bit pricey but hello 25% discount and a very attentive Mr Claus and I was one happy girl come Christmas!
(Photo: We Are Knitters)
I cast on as soon as I finished all my UFOs that had been set aside to make Christmas presents (well nearly all my UFOs – I’m looking at you Waffle Sweater :-() and after a bit of fiddling around and realising I would need to purl in the Continental style to get the right slant to the pattern I was off! If you’re interested in the difference between the normal Continental style of knitting and Eastern European knitting have a look at this video which explains it really well:
It was a real novelty to work on a flat piece that would require no seaming and I made pretty fast progress until….. I realised that half way down the scarf I had forgotten to increase on one row! I was so annoyed but reminding myself that there was no rush to finish and that this is what slow fashion is all about I unravelled to the point om my mistake and carried on. All good, except to when I got to about 30 rows from finishing I realised I hadn’t actually corrected my mistake, so I unravelled the whole lot and decided to start from the beginning again!
The scarf is knit in a diagonal lace stitch which isn’t hard to do but I did need to pay attention as on all odd rows you need to knit two together and then make one so when I was watching TV (and at that point we were on the final episodes of Sons of Anarchy so looking away from the screen often wasn’t an option) I often found myself knitting automatically without looking and then realising a couple of rows down that I’d forgotten an increase and having to unravel a few rows again :-(. Despite the whole back and forth the scarf only took a little more than a week to knit (a couple of hours a night) and I only used up 2 1/2 of the 4 balls of yarn that had come with the kit. I did only knit 132 instead of the 138 rows you are supposed to but I though that given I am short I could get away with it (I do) and I really wanted to have some yarn left over to make a matching snood and scarf for my little mouse.
As always I loved this We are Knitters kit. The presentation, the quality of the wool and the contemporary pattern make it worth every penny of it’s price tag. However I do have a small gripe with how the pattern is written. On each odd row you need to make the increases so you knit the first stitch, make one then knit one then continue making one and knitting two together until only one stitch is left when you make one and then knit one. Now at the time of knitting I didn’t question this but when I laid out the finished scarf I realised it wasn’t a proper right angled triangle but that the right side was considerably longer than the left side which, if you look at the increase sequence would make sense as you make an extra increase at the beginning of the row and not at the end. I have been scratching my head over this as I don’t understand how this happened – surely it can’t be a problem with the pattern otherwise someone would have picked up on it so I must be reading it wrong?! Have any of you come across this when making the Ranta Scarf?
I did briefly consider going back and restarting for a third time but you can’t really tell when I’m wearing it and I know my frustration at having to do the whole thing again would have spoilt the experience.
I still find it ironic that after having decided at the beginning of the year to not knit anymore scarves until I had learnt how to knit properly, it’s turned out to be a scarf pattern that has finally trumped me!
Kat and Leni 
That is so pretty!
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Thank you so much! 😘
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I just finished the ranta scarf and noticed it was not a perfect triangle too. It was hard to tell as I was knitting because the needles didn’t seem long enough so it was bunched up at the top. I’m about to start another for my sister. I was going to try and make hers more symmetrical. I was thinking instead of adding the extra stitch at the beginning of each odd numbered row to alternate adding the stitch at the beginning of the first odd row and then at the end of the second odd row, if that makes sense. Do you think that would make it more symmetrical?
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Hi Marla,
Is it awful of my to say I’m glad it didn’t just happen to me? I also knitted it on my wooden WAK needles and I kinda wish I hadn’t as if I’d knitted it on my 100cm circulars I probably would have noticed sooner. I think alternating the extra stitch is a good idea but I don’t think it would work for me as I’m the worst at remembering where I last did something – that’s actually why the Ranta Scarf took me so long to do – I’d always forget to increase or knit two together somewhere and then have to unravel back to the mistake. I personally prefer how the shorter side look so I think the next time I will just have one increase on each side so *knit one, make one and then knit two together, make one etc until only one stitch remains*. I think like that I’ll get a perfect right angled triangle. If you prefer longer sides you could just kbnit both the beginning and the end of the row with the two increases – that would give you the shape that’s shown on the instruction booklet. Hope that all makes some sort of sense. I look forward to sereing how you get on with the second scarf you make your sister!
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How many balls of yarn did you use? I just ripped mine out because I only made it through 2 full balls and the beginning of the third.
Did you do the gauge swatch? If so, how did you knit that?
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Hi Staci, I think I only used around 2 1/2 balls of yarn for the scarf and then the remainder of the third ball for the tassels. I made a hag and a snood for my daughter with the leftovers so I definitely had one ball at least left over. I find that the We are Knitters Kits do tend to be on the generous side when it comes to providing yarn- I often have a ball and a bit left over. I didn’t knit a swatch gauge but if you wanted to then I think it’s best to knit it in the pattern you are making the scarf in. Also as it’s a scarf you can just kind of knit it the size you want it, if you feel it’s too small after 2 balls of yarn just knit a few more rows to use up a bit more! Good luck and if you have any more questions I’m happy to help 😊
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It came out beautiful, you did a wonderful job!
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My Ranta scarf turned out asymmetrical as well and I very carefully followed the pattern. I began on the Way needles.and switched to my circulars when it became tightly bunched. Maybe the scarf is meant to be slightly asymmetrical? I would like to think so!!!
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I’ve just finished mine and I am so disappointed it is not symmetrical… I think I will do it again, adding one stitch in the first raws (wherever) and then add two at the beginning And two at the end of each odd raw. Maybe I will send a message to WAK for them to fix the pattern. Good job anyway!
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