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I was digging around in my gigantic button box the other day, swishing my hand around in it and looking for an interesting button when suddenly I spot a vintage suspender clip. Yep, the same kind of clip my great grandfather "Papa" used to wear on his suspenders and the same kind you'd find on today's suspenders. Anyway, I was thinking of some way to use it on a knit project. Decided it would be a great clip for a scarf. I've never been a scarf pin kind of person but this is a similar idea. I decided on a shorter scarf, gathered at one end with a clip sewn into the gather. The clip I had was old, the metal veneer was worn and scratched a bit, so I decided it might look kind of nifty if I found an interesting button and glued it on to the clip. I used hot glue and it seems pretty secure. Scroll down further to see how I made this one.
How I made this one:
Using my standard gauge KH-965i, I chose a garter carriage pattern (its hard to tell from the pattern book picture but I think it is a mock rib).Pattern # 467
I cast on 90 stitches
Tension dial at 8
Knit until I could measure 42" in length. I wanted to my end result to be 14" wide x 42" long.
After the last row, instead of binding off, I cut yarn leaving a long tail, threaded the tail through a darning needle and thread the needle through each stitch on the needles - remove from needles and gather tightly. Once gathered I placed my suspender clip, centered in the gather and sandwiched between 2 sides of the gather, and proceeded to stitch the gather shut and the clip between.
Now for the fun part - choose a button that coordinates with your yarn and hot glue it to the suspender clip (top). I've made a couple of these now and all of the buttons I chose had plastic or metal shanks on the underside of them. I used wire cutters and I snipped the shank off before gluing them onto the clip so that they'd be flatter and adhere better to the clip.
Now your button is the top of the clip.
Clip onto the side of the scarf anywhere you like that looks good to you and wear.
You do not need to have a KH-965i, in fact you don't even need a garter carriage, you can basically knit this in any pattern stitch you like, just make it 14" x 42". There are many tuck stitch and slip stitch patterns that would work great for this. You could do just straight stockinette, however I'm afraid you'll have your edges do the dreaded roll unless you block the heck out of it.
Where to find these clips:
These are actually pretty easy to find. I believe JoAnn Fabrics, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc will have these, perhaps even Walmart. If they aren't called suspender clips they may be called mitten clips, pacifier clips or something else. There are also tons of them on Ebay on any given day. They are usually $1 or $2 a piece.
If you are a hand knitter see here is my hand-knit version:
http://auntekristy.blogspot.com/2016/02/clipper-scarf-hand-knit-free-pattern.html
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