feikoi | Commander Cody Teddy Bear Scarf

Off-white teddy bear wearing a yellow and white knit scarf with two separate photos of the scarf

Inspired by @jessepinwheels's fic, Dielectric Breakdown.

There is a gift waiting for Cody when he visits the Archives to do some work a few days later. It is a double knit scarf in 212th colors--gold-on-white on one side, white-on-gold on the other. It is a wide scarf with a stylized sunburst pattern at both ends, which looks shockingly similar to the pattern he had once painted on his armor.

-- Chapter One

The test run was done in miniature because not only was this my first time with actual colorworking but I also had to teach myself doubleknitting. I used super cheap 100yen yarn which unfortunately turned out to be different weights, contributing to the yellow wrapping around one edge slightly.

(We don't talk about the other edge. It is a messy, poorly-tensioned eyesore.)

But whatever. Practice piece. It's fine! (It's fine.)

Anyway, next up is the "do as I say, not as I do" pattern for a Commander Cody teddy bear scarf! Mix and match the motifs as you like: I'm indecisive af but hopefully they will be useful to someone.

(Updated with fixes as I figure them out!)

Required Skills

Invisible doubleknitting cast-on: it feels incredibly similar to the long-tail cast-on.
Doubleknitting: can you do a 1x1 rib and hold two strands at once? you're probably good.
Kitchener stitch to bind off.
Combination knitting, if you're having trouble with the tension. This helps fix both the wavy texture and the edge stitches (selvage), to a degree.
I'm still working on neater selvages tbh, but there are a couple of youtube tutorials here and here which look...promising?

Knowing how to read a stitch chart helps, but we're using it purely for the colors. And knitting flat is for the fucking birds, but that's also a requirement for this. Alas.
I really like the idea of peppering in texture or fleur-de-lis stitches throughout when I make a human-sized version of this, but that is way above my level/patience rn so. Another time!
Required Materials

Color A: One ball of white yarn, light/worsted weight is fine.
Color B: One ball of warm yellow (butter, goldenrod, orange-leaning, whatever floats your Venator) yarn, of the same type and weight.
Knitting needles a few sizes smaller than recommended, circular or straight. (I used 3.75mm circulars because. I don't think I own any small straight needles? Huh.)
Two double pointed needles or two circular needles in vaguely similar sizes, for binding off.
A blunt tapestry needle, also for binding off.

Instructions

Cast on 13 stitches of each color, using the invisible doubleknitting cast-on method.
Set up (rows 1-2)! This is covered in the linked tutorial, with one change: In Row 2 ONLY, all knit stitches should be knit through the back loop. This is to compensate for the twist direction of the cast-on method.
Choose your end motif, A or B, and follow the chart directions from the bottom up. Since this scarf is reversible, the alternating rows will have the inverse (the gold "wrong" side, but can it really be wrong? Nope!) facing you.
No color working, just plain double knitting for the next 48 rows.
If your brain is melting from boredom, it's central motif time! If you like the fic version, continue plain double knitting for 40 rows.
It's back! 48 rows of plain double knitting.
End motif again, this time knitting the chart from top to bottom.
Kitchener stitch bind off.
- HOWEVER FOR CLARITY'S SAKE, if you're depending on a tutorial like me, you're gonna take the tapestry needle around the right side under the knitting needle points every time you switch from back to front and vice versa. no tutorial indicated this movement and I had to redo stitches an embarrassing number of times.
IT'S THE END DOOT-DOO DOO-DOOT-DOO-DOOT

The final size is about 6.5cm wide by 80cm long. If you want a longer or shorter scarf, add or subtract rows in both parts 4 and 6 (the unpatterned sections).

Stitch Charts
Available in this imgur post! It includes:

End motif A: three pronged sunburst ＜ー
End motif B: four pronged sunburst - ＜ー
Central motif C: mirrored motif B to make a full "sun" ー＞ー＜ー

Available on request:

Central motif D: I /tried/ to work in a 二一二 (212) bc it's symmetrical but it just...bored me still.
Central motif E: How about an aurebesh "212" knitting chart, too? Whatever, it's your scarf, go for it. HOWEVER, because it's not symmetrical, to make it reversible AND readable you can't just do yarn swaps like usual. I'll uh, have to make a specialized chart for that if there's any interest. (Also, ugggghhhh, Aurebesh numbers are, roughly at minimum, done on a 10x10 grid and so REALLY don't like being centered on this size scarf. WHATEVER.)
Chart files also available on request - I've been using the app Stitchart for my knitting charts, to the point I'm probably gonna plunk down for the paid version.

(Scarf modeled by Butters. Originally posted on Tumblr.)