Pet football scarves

Do you need a gift for someone who’s crazy about their pet and their football team (or any other franchise with characteristic colours)? Why not knit them a pet-sized scarf in their fan colours? 

I’m not in favour of dressing up animals just for the sake of their owner’s amusement, but the scarves I made were never intended to be actually worn by their furry owners. The scarves may have been proportional for rabbits, but they would make a full mummy-style body wrap for the rats they were intended for. Nevertheless, their owner loves them, and the rats don’t mind posing while sitting on them. We have not managed to confirm whether or not the rats actually support the team in question, or secretly cheer for the rival team…

To get started, you can try to find a picture of a human-size scarf to copy or at least find the characteristic colours of the team/franchise. I used dk yarn for this project, but if you’re aiming for bigger pets chunkier yarn could speed things up. 

This is a very simple project, requiring only 2 basic skills: knitting in garter stitch & changing colours. Optionally, you could add tassels and/or embroider a monogram/logo.

Knit every row (garter stitch), changing colours at the start of a row. Afterwards, you can add tassels e.g. as shown here. After adding tassels in this way, I teased apart the separate strands that interweave to make up the yarn to give the illusion of smaller tassels. I used a crochet hook for this, but any other tool with a fine point that wouldn’t destroy your yarn would work too. 

Finally, if desired, add some embroidery. In my case the rats couldn’t fight over the scarves, since they were clearly labeled with the monogram of their owner! An alternative would be to embroider a logo, or sew on a patch with the logo on it (probably fairly easy to find online if it’s a popular franchise).

Your options are endless. For example, if the rats had been mine, I might have given Harry a Gryffindor and Malfoy a Slytherin themed scarf…

Grundle Flower scarf

Sometimes, the yarn does the work for you and Grundl Flower looks as good in real life as it did on the pictures. In fact, it looks better, with a slight sheen to it, and it feels oh so soft too. At first, I was a bit sceptical about the price, but it has been an amazing knitting experience well worth the 'fancy' price, in my opinion. The yarn knits up very easily and quickly, and without any real effort on your part creates an amazing 3D texture reminiscent of flowers.

Grundl Flower comes in either a single colour or variegated shades. I found the location of the 'flowers' to be relatively predictable while the shades seemed quite random. It looked a bit daunting at first, 'knit past the flower' (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=068cRhC-cYA), but it's pretty self-explanatory when you're doing it yourself.

I used 22 stitches per row (knitting on both sides) and most of 3 balls of yarn to end up with a slightly less bulky scarf than the suggested pattern, and a little bit of leftover yarn for a yet-to-be-decided accessory (boot toppers?).

It has been a fun project. The easy almost monotonous knitting combined with the look and feel of this yarn has resulted in some very nice almost meditative knitting moments. And even though winter seems to be retreating, the soft warmth of this scarf may yet come in handy during the fickleness of British spring...