calling a knitting/crochet expert!

[florenceuk]

I found a picture of a little children's scarf and thought it was so pretty I wanted to make one for DD. It has a lacey pattern so have tracked down something similar (in a Louisa Harding book). But the ends have some sort of ruffly trimming which I think is crochet. I have rather laboriously taught myself to do some basic crochet. But I don't know enough about crochet to begin to work out how to do the edging, and the picture is not clear enough. A search on crochet edgings just brings up reams of handkerchiefs and tablecloths. Would anybody be kind enough to have a look for me and tell me roughly what I should be doing? I can send you the picture?

I did a ruffly edging on a scarf and just did more than one stitch in each of the holes (I think I did trebles) iykwim.

(do send the pic if you think i can help

you can knit a ruffly edging it doesn't have to be crochet! - a lot of debbie blisses books have knitted lace/kind of ruffly worm edgings - you can adapt a pattern to include the edging you prefer. post a pic of the one you have and i'll see if i can dig anything out.

much easier to crochet, imo, as you don't have to either sew it on or pick up stitches (my 2pet hates )

Bundle can I send you the picture? it is not that clear but it does look a bit scalloped. I don't need it to be exactly the same, just similar. I think i can follow instructions along the lines of do two trebles in each stitch! I'll CAT you (when I am not at work).

florence, I have some scallopy edgings in a learn to crochet book, if you want something like that, so do send it through, x

Aah, that's it bundle, see I'm a knitter not a crocheter! :D

I have gone "over to the dark side" acc to my knitting friends

If the ruffle is just on the ends (not the sides), then it's very easy to do in knitting, you want to do a ruffle cast on and a ruffle cast off.

For the ruffle cast on, you just create two (or four, or eight) times as many stitches as you want, and then decrease them all really fast. For the ruffle cast off, you just create lots of extra stitches, and then cast them all off.

Here are some pictures of a blanket I made using the ruffle cast off.

(If it's on the sides, you do have to pick up stitches, but it's really really easy to do ... well, maybe less so if you're working from something lacy.)

Right have finally worked out how to scan and upload this image: child's scarf . If anybody has any ideas, much appreciated - bundle I've sent this to you as well.

The cast on and off that NQC described would make that effect nicely

Oh shit this has reminded me I need to finish the felted teacosy I was making for MIL....

Yup, that's the same method. You just want to cast on, say 4 times as many stitches as you want. Knit a row, then k2tog for every stitch. Knit another row, then k2tog for every stitch again. Do the same in reverse for the cast off.

thanks NQC. I love the blanket - far in advance of my knitting skills! I think the advantage of the crochet edging is that I could do it after I've knit the scarf - but I am going to experiment. I've actually quite enjoyed learning crochet, DH thinks I've gone mad though.