Zig! Zag!

I was interested in the Summit Shawl in Knitty because it looks so unusual, so I cast on just to see how it worked. It is an interesting idea, but it didn't turn out to be so interesting to knit -- too many short strips for my taste. So I didn't get too far, and ended up just ripping it out. Life is too short to knit something that isn't intriguing.

If you look at the picture, the pattern is worked from right to left, vertically, end to end, however you want to say it. I wondered if it couldn't be knit bottom to top, horizontally.

This scarf is my proof-of-principle attempt, done on large needles with one of my magic balls.

I certainly managed the general shape! I didn't try to copy the exact look, since I wanted a scarf and wanted it quick. I did it in garter instead of stockinette so it would be reversible, and I only did a few ridges between the interesting rows.

Here is a closer look.

 

Essentially, I case on a multiple of 18, and then knit several ridges. Then I knit 6, wrapping each stitch twice, cast off six, knit 6 double-wrapped stitches, cast on 6 stitches, repeat from the beginning. On the next row, drop the extra wraps so you have long stitches, and then knit several more ridges.

It worked fine, except I should have realized that it would grow at the ends, so on the second wrapping row, I had to start and end with 12 wrapped stitches, and on the third, I had 18 wrapped stitches. That actually worked out for a scarf, but it was something to keep in mind.

Because of using the magic balls, each end looked a bit different, but the scarf is so long that the gradual color change doesn't really show up very well.

Here are the two ends so you can see the difference.

A nice diversion, and I think I'll try it again, maybe just wrapping one extra time instead of two.