Faux-Knitting without Tunisian?

[Captain Hook]

I've been beating my brains in trying to find a stitch that will convincingly mimic the look of a knitted item.

 

I tried tunisian, and I absolutely love the way the stitches look, however it's prohibitively impractical on the item I'm trying to create, which is a truly enormous (eight inches wide, five to six feet long) striped scarf crocheted in rounds (an adult-sized Harry Potter scarf.) In fact it probably would have looked quite comical if you could have seen me trying to make it work!

 

Of course I don't know how to knit, and for various reasons, now is not the time to learn. But, of course, the scarves in the Harry Potter movies are knitted, and I'd like to convincingly replicate that look upon anything but very close inspection.

 

Does anyone else know of another stitch, that isn't an afghan stitch, that produces a knit-looking pattern?

 

If not I'll just single crochet with a small hook and trust that no one who knows the difference will admiring my scarf. I'd just really love to be able to be more accurate than that.

 

Thank you very much!

[rori381]

I'm making the Harry Potter scarves also, i'm making 6 of them, but i'm not knitting them at all, i'm making them 32 stitches across, DC and working that in 9 rows each of burgandy and gold. They are coming out real nice.

The only thing i can think of to create that knitting stitch without knitting is to buy one of those circular things that you wind your yarn on and pull the yarn over and it makes these really pretty round scarves. I've seen these hanging on an end cap at Michael's.

Sweet Blessings,

Rori

[Captain Hook]

Hi Rori. I'm not sure what device you're talking about but as I have terminally misplaced my only afghan hook and will probably need to go back to Michael's tomorrow, so I will look into your suggestion then.

 

I probably shouldn't be being so picky but I want the scarf for the release of the next book and I'm being a stickler for accuracy and I'm basing it as closely as humanly possible on the costume scarves, down to the number of stripes and tassles.

 

Except for the colors. Hee! I was talking to a lady in line when I was buying my yarn. I'm standing there holding big skeins of royal blue and brown-taupe, talking about my new Harry Potter scarf, and she's looking so confused. She eventually couldn't stand it anymore and asked "Aren't those supposed to have yellow in them or something?" She had made a few for kids, herself, and they were all gold and scarlet, of course. I explained about the color choices. She looked rather relieved, I think she was fearing for my sanity!

 

Good luck with your Gryffindor scarves! I bet they'll come out very pretty. If I can manage to loosen up a little I may use a similar pattern for mine. Thanks for your suggestion, and again, I will be sure to look into it.

[xantha]

Does anyone else know of another stitch, that isn't an afghan stitch, that produces a knit-looking pattern?

 

Do you want it to look like stockinette? Or garter stitch or what?

 

You can mock the look of stockinette by using split sc:

 

ch length

work a row of sc into chain as per usual

work the next row of sc into the middle of the sc in the space below. There's a V shape -- you insert the hook between the V made by the sc in the row below.

 

Hope that helps; it's a little hard to describe. Try making a swatch and see if it comes out as you want it.

[Captain Hook]

Jess, I don't know, I'm completely ignorant about knitting. But this stitch does look like what I imagined! I'm still not sure I'll use it for the whole scarf. It's kind of bulky, the... erm... faux-stockinette runs horizontally, and it's a bit cumbersome inserting the hook there. It would be massively thick if I worked it in rounds using split sc.

 

I like the stitch very much, though, and I had never heard of it. It's got a unique look to it. Even if I don't use it for this project, I will surely find a use for it somewhere, so I appreciate it very much! *hugs*

[xantha]

I like the stitch very much, though, and I had never heard of it. It's got a unique look to it. Even if I don't use it for this project, I will surely find a use for it somewhere, so I appreciate it very much! *hugs*

 

I came across it in a sock crocheting book and thought it was great! Now I try to share it with everyone I can - ha! So, even if you don't use it for this (it takes me a LONG time to work split sc), I'm glad you have a new stitch variation!

 

Anyone who says crochet is boring or isn't adaptable is very silly!

 

What was your problem doing it with Tunisian?

[Chatty]

I think because she's working it in the round.

 

If you still want to use Tunisian, you could make it twice as wide as you want then sew it up one long side.

 

[xantha]

I think because she's working it in the round.

 

Ah! you're right, I just saw that in the original post. Thanks!

[Kymberlina]

http://www.lonestaryarns.com/camel.html

 

This link might help you out. I'm not sure if you could use that technique in a round though.

 

Good luck:hook

[Captain Hook]

Jess, yes, Chatty was right. You're right, it is a great technique. I know I can use it somewhere.

 

Chatty, I thought about it but the item in question is supposed to be between eight and nine inches wide when finished. So between sixteen and eighteen inches when opened up. Cumbersome even on the longest of afghan hooks. I would have to make two and sew them together. I might but it doesn't appeal to me, because part of the reason I wanted to crochet in the round was to avoid seams.

 

Kymberlina, thank you for the technique! Still not quite right, but I will bear this one in mind for use in other projects, too. I'm not sure I'm going to find anything. I might give up and just double crochet it. Or single, with a large hook.