Hi - i was going to try a simple scarf pattern:

EASY MOHAIR SCARF
Needles: US #11
Yarn: Mohair, 2 balls of approx. 90 yards each.
Cast on 22 stitches
Row 1: K2, * P1, YO, P2tog, K1. Repeat from * to end of row.
All following rows are the same.
Knit to approx. 48" in length.
Trim with 6" of fringe on both ends.

My question is, if you P2Tog, wouldn't that decrease the number of stitches?

I've checked out stitchguide.com out, but they don't seem to cover that stitch.

thanks-
Heather

Yes, P2Tog (purl two together) would decrease the number of stitches, but YO (yarn over) increases the number of stitches, so you should be keeping the total number of stitches the same.

it's an easy way to get into basic lace knitting, I've knit a scarf with p2t and yo's and slipping stiches, and it was really much more interesting to me than a normal straightforward scarf.

i'm a beginner knitter. can anyone break this down for me? YO is just an increase stitch right? is it where you pull up an extra stitch from in between 2 stitches? (man, it's difficult to write about this w/out technical terms!)

and if you follow this pattern you'll have a really loopy scarf or what? i can't see a mental picture cuz i'm too inexperienced.

p.s. thanks for the stitchguide.com reference. i'm going there now.

okay, i'll do my best to explain this...

YO is an increase. basically you just take the yarn over the kneedle creating another loop on the kneedle. its much easier to understand if you have an illustrated book.

your pattern is going to have "holes" in it from the YOs and P2Ts, in a kind of lacy way. trust me, it will look great!

Here's one more question. How to do the fringe? By "fringe" do they mean making the little tassels at the bottom? Can we leave that part out?

Thanks!

E. Bess

Fringe is usually done by attaching individual lengths of yarn every inch or so. You can make it as long or as short as you want. Or,you can leave the fringe off if you want.

and the attaching fringe can be really easy, if you just cut your pieces of yarn to twice the length you need, fold them in half, and pushing the folded middle loopy part through the scarf, and then slipping the two ends through the loop, and pulling tight. does that make sense? I'm incoherent right now.

you're more coherent than i am. i'm too much of a visual person. i have a hard time explaining things in writing!