At Last - Finished Space Invaders

It's done! At long last, it's done!! I told myself no more new projects until this was finished, and there's something I REALLY REALLY want to start working on, so I forced myself to finish this stupid scarf this weekend.

And so, at long long long long LONG last... I give you... the Space Invaders scarf.





I have uploaded and linked the chart I created for this here in my blog for you guys to use as you like. If you want to duplicate my scarf PRECISELY, this is what I did:

I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn, in black and in bright green. It takes probably half a skein of each. I knit on size 7s.
Really, you can use whatever you'd like, but I think worsted probably works best. Bulky might do all right, too.
Being that it's a scarf, gauge doesn't matter. Just knit it. Have fun. Seriously.

With BOTH YARNS held in one hand and using long-tail cast on, CO 19 stitches. This actually gives you 38 stitches - 19 green and 19 black.
For the next row, you'll start working in double-knit. (I won't go into too much detail on double-knitting because there are great tutorials out there and people who can explain it MUCH better than I can.) Knit the first stitch in green, move BOTH yarns to the front, and purl the second stitch in black. Move both yarns to the back again and keep going until you now have a row of 38 stitchs, alternating in green and black.
Work four rows of solid colour like this.
Begin working the chart, bottom-up.
When you finish the chart, again knit four solid rows of colour. Then, you need to change your colours completely to start the stripes. That is... if you're about to do a knit stitch with green and a purl with black, you'll knit with black and purl with green. Do two rows, then switch colours again.
There are a total of 63 stripes. After you've finished the last stripe, switch colours ONE last time and knit four solid rows. Then start again with the chart, going top down this time.
Finish the chart and knit four solid rows of colour again.
To bind off, again take both yarns in one hand. You will BO by doing a K2TOG instead of just straight knit stitches - put your needle through a green stitch AND a black stitch, and knit them both (holding both yarns in your hand, remember!) If you don't do it this way and just knit all 38 stitches separately, you'll end up with the BO end of your scarf bigger than the CO end!

There are other ways to CO and BO with double knitting... this is just what I did. I chose to BO holding both strands of yarn because it replicated the look of my CO. Yes, it's kind of messy... and that is why I gave my scarf fringe. (Plus I like fringe.) I took two strands of black and two strands of green for each tassel of fringe and looped them through every other stitch or so until it looked fringe-y enough.


And that's it! I'm DONE with it!
My next project is double-knit also. What can I say... I love double-knit scarves. (Or I'm just a glutton for punishment.)

Space Invaders Chart

This is the chart for my Space Invaders scarf. You can do whatever you'd like with it - put it on armwarmers, socks, a sweater... take just a few aliens, add some aliens in, whatever.
This chart is really easy for someone who's a beginner to charts because it's symmetrical... that is, you don't need to remember if you're reading the blue rows right-to-left and the white rows left-to-right or vice versa, because it all reads the same backwards and forwards anyway. So if you screw up and forget which way you're going, you won't screw up the pattern.

Space Invaders Chart


My chart is slightly different from existing charts because I wanted to make it look as if you were really playing the old game... so I sought out old reference pictures. You WILL notice that my chart is technically missing an alien graphic - that's because I included the little explosion graphic. There are five rows of aliens in the old game, and for my chart, the bottom row of aliens is being EXPLODED.
Oh - it's also missing another alien graphic... the one of the guy at the top with his legs in. All the reference pics I found for the original game just had five rows, so I didn't include that last graphic either.

That's just how I chose to do mine and why I made my own chart instead of using one of the several other options that are out there! For specifics on exactly how I did MY scarf, see this post. But you don't have to follow what I did... you can work the chart bottom-up three times, then go top-down three times on the other side. Make bigger stripes in the middle; make vertical stripes in the middle. Do boxes, hearts, the word "SPACE INVADERS" - whatever. Part of the fun of knitting is making a pattern yours... that's why this is really less "pattern" and more "just a chart."
Enjoy it.

SI scarf - Progress Again

Today's Tom Sawyer he gets high on you
And the space he invades he gets by on you

The SI scarf at 50%:






The length of the scarf at 50% was half pattern, half striped. Now I'm on my way back down the other side! There are 28 stripes per side for a total of 56. Still agonizing over the stripes, but at the 50% mark, I counted my stripes, then put that number on my knitting counter (one of those that you change the numbers on by turning a dial.) and started to count DOWN as I knit the same number of stripes on the other side. It's easier this way... now I know what I'm working towards. Before it was just a length goal, not a number of rows or anything. With a concrete number in front of me, it is WAY easier to go "Okay, I'm knitting from 28 to 20 now" and to actually make that goal! Hopefully now I will be able to rip through the rest of the stripes, then get back to the pattern, and... and... FINALLY... finish this thing.



Right now, my only other WIP that's on needles is the Pinky Scarf, which is boring boring BORING garter stitch. I'd like to finish it just to say it's finished... not because I'm particularly excited about the FO. I guess that's kind of a bad thing... but what can you do? I hope to eventually put little flowers on it, like those in Knitty's Nagano Sakura. I'm sure once it's done, I will love it, but it's not an exciting project as is...
And why mess with garter stitch when there are so many other fun, enticing projects in my head?