Scroll Scarf: Retractable Scarf With Storage Space!

This is a retractable scarf with ratcheting rollers (see the second video)! Each roller is made from cardboard, wooden skewers, and small bits of metal scrapped from broken binder clips and brass fasteners and also contains a flat circular spring to retract the scarf. Each roller also has some space that can hold small items from napkins to keys to decorative lights.

The goal of this project was to create something new and unusual, but also have it be somewhat practical. Since summer is almost over I figured a scarf could be useful, and since I don't like carrying around bags for short walks, the rollers could serve as effective storage for essential items (or for cool decoration).

This project was a little difficult because the springs I used were supposed to be for lawn mowers (to retract the string that you pull to start) so it was way too strong-- it kept ripping through the cardboard. That being said, it was a lot of fun trying to make it through the challenges.

Supplies

Parts:

Cardboard (two types: single and double layer)
Flat Circular Spring (2 pc)
12" Wooden Skewers (20 pc)
22 AWG Wire (for reinforcing cardboard)
Paper Fasteners
0.5 cm width, 5 cm length (or longer) (4 pc)
0.3 cm width (or smaller), 1.7 cm length (or longer) (1 pc)
Extension Spring: 11/64 in Diameter, 5/8 in Length (2 pc)
Flat Circular Neodymium Magnets:
0.5 in (2 pc)
0.25 in (2 pc)
Empty tape roll: 2 cm height, 8.1 cm diameter, 0.2 cm thickness (2 pc)
Yarn:
Lion Brand Yarns: Wool Ease, Thick & Quick (Bulky 6), Galaxy
Lion Brand Yarns: Wool Ease, Thick & Quick (Bulky 6), Mustard
Third color of thinner yarn
Copper Tape (optional)

Tools:

Pruning Scissors (or other tool capable of cutting through wooden skewers)
Saw (I used a survival wire saw)
Knitting needles (9 mm)
Box cutter/craft knife
Craft Glue
Super Glue
Thin String
Wire Cutter
Pliers
Protective Gloves
Pushpin
Toothpick

Step 1: Knitting the Scarf

The total length of the scarf is about 6 feet and knitted in the chevron stitch. I did follow a YouTube tutorial which I will link, so I will only explain it very briefly:

Cast on 13 stitches
Knit Chevron stitch (Full credits to Knittycat's Knits for the pattern: https://youtu.be/qATRu1Yxd0E?feature=shared)
Purl all stitches
*K1, M1L, K4, SK2P, K4, M1R. Repeat from * until the last stitch K1

I did not follow a specific color pattern for it, I just alternated between the yellow and purple and switch to a thinner blue/white color for the middle.

Step 2: Building the Roller > Spring Housing

The first step in building the roller is to create a housing for the circular spring.

This step is pretty straightforward, there are only two parts: a circle cut from the double-layered cardboard (4.1 cm radius), and one of the tape rolls. To build:

Cut a 0.8 cm x 0.3 cm vertical slit into the base of the tape roll. The slit is perpendicular to the curvature
Next, cut out a 4.1 cm radius cardboard circle
To make a hole for the shaft, cut out a 0.5 cm radius circle in the center of it
Use the tacky glue to glue the cardboard circle onto the the tape roll with the slit facing down (see image A)

The slit will be used later to hold the spring in place.

Make two of these.

Step 3: Building the Roller > Inserting the Spring

In order to fit the spring into the housing, you need to unwind the spring from the way it came packaged first. Please be careful when handling the springs; you will be needing to remove the wire holding the spring wound up. When doing this the spring expands rapidly and can hit random objects with varying degrees of damage (I can say from experience--). My suggestion is to wear gloves and eye protection throughout this process. I also suggest taping the ends of the springs because they can be sharp (I can also say from experience). That being said, here we go:

Wear safety protective stuff
Get a small box that will have enough room for the spring to expand (I recommend a shoebox)
Pinch the constraining wire with the pliers and put the spring into the box
Close the top of the box as much as you can
Using one of the wooden skewers, push the spring out of the wire (warning: it might be loud)

Great! If you're still following, do it once more with another spring (two springs, one for each roller).

Once you get the springs out, it's time to insert them into the housing:

Slip the outer end of the spring into the slit made in the previous step
Next, wind up the spring until it lies completely flat on the circle of cardboard at the bottom of the tape roll
Repeat for the other spring housing, HOWEVER, ensure that the spring wind THE OTHER WAY, so that at the very end, the rolls will retract towards each other.

Step 4: Building the Roller > the Shaft

The shaft is composed of 4 wooden skewers glued together in a square formation. To start:

Glue two of the skewers to each other, and glue the other two to each other; make sure that they are clamped together and dry straight (see image A for one pair). DO NOT GLUE THE PAIRS TOGETHER

For the next part, you will need the spring housing from Step 2:

Insert the two pairs of skewers through the cardboard circle (of the spring housing)
You will notice that the center of the circular spring has a curved segment; make sure that this part goes in between the two pairs of skewers (see image B)
Glue the two pairs of skewers together as well as to the spring with tacky glue, but ensure that the shaft is not stuck to the spring housing (image C).
Clamp the skewers together to dry (image D)
Do the same with the other end of the skewer (image E)
Do this step for both rollers

The rotary shafts are done!

Step 5: Building the Roller > Ratcheting Gear

The next step is to create the ratcheting gear to go inside the housing on top of the spring.

To create the shape of the gear, using the double-layered cardboard:

Draw a circle with a radius of 3.3 cm (for steps 1 - 4 see image A)
Inscribe a second circle with a radius of 2.5 cm
Draw 4 lines dividing the large circle into 8 even parts
From each point where one of the lines intersect the circle, draw a line through the point that is tangent to the circle that ends at the circumference of the inner circle (basically the black pen lines in image A)
Cut out the ratchet shape (the part outlines in black in image A)
Notice how there are two versions of the gear in image A, with the teeth going different ways. You will need to cut out both of these

The ratcheting gear teeth will need to be reinforced:

Taking the large paper fasteners, cut the heads off
Cut the legs of the fasteners into 1.5 cm pieces, you need 8 pieces for each ratcheting gear, which can be cut from two paper fasteners (see image B)
Bend each of the pieces at 0.8 cm about 50 degrees (see image C)
Super glue each of the pieces onto the ratcheting gear, lining up the 0.8 cm arm of the bend with the perpendicular side of the gear tooth; apply super glue liberally as it will also strengthen and stiffen the cardboard (see imade D for finished gear)
Do this for both gears

You will also need to create a supporting circle to go underneath the ratcheting gear, also using double-layered cardboard:

Cut a circle with 3.6 cm radius (image E, right)
Strip off one layer of the cardboard to make it thinner (image H)
Make two of these

The two pieces (the circle and the ratcheting gear) will need to be aligned:

Poke a hole through the center of both pieces with a pushpin
Skewer both pieces with a toothpick (image G) to make sure they are aligned
Apply tacky glue to the inner circle of the ratcheting gear, and super glue to the teeth (image F)
Press the two pieces together (I placed weights on top of both places to ensure strength) and let dry
Do this twice for both gears, however make sure that the gears teeth oriented the correct way, the two gears will look different in the end (reference image A again)

Once the two pieces are glued together, you can also apply extra super glue directly to the cardboard teeth to enforce further; the teeth will be under a lot of stress.

Finally, you need to create a hole for the shaft similar as with the housing:

Inscribe a 0.5 radius circle into the center of the cardboard circle
Within the circle, cut an X through the cardboard layers for the shaft

Step 6: Building the Roller > Inserting the Ratcheting Gear

After the shaft is completed, the ratcheting gear will slide onto the shaft covering the spring. Make sure that the cardboard circle attached to the ratcheting gear is the part coming in contact with the spring so that the ratcheting gear is facing up and visible within the housing.

There are a couple more steps to attach the gear to the shaft:

The first step is to make sure the correct gear goes on top of the correct spring, since they will turn different ways: see image A for which gear corresponds to which spring
Skewer the ratchet gear and base with the shaft so that it sits within the spring housing
Glue the ratcheting gear to the shaft with tacky glue (see image B)

Almost all the parts of the housing are assembled on!

Step 7: Building the Roller > the Pawl

I actually didn't know it was called this but-- as mentioned in the previous step-- the pawl is the arm that makes sure the ratcheting gear only turns one way and stops it from turning the other way. For this build, the pawl was made from part of the tape roll:

Cut a downwards slit perpendicular to the curvature of the tape roll down to the circular cardboard part under the ratcheting gear, next, cut 2 cm along the curvature of the tape roll (see image A). It is VERY important to note the direction the gear turns, the pawls will go different directions for each spring housing (see image B for which way the pawl arm should go for each gear)
Next, make another downwards slit 0.1 cm from the first one to create room for the pawl to move more freely (see image A)
Do this for both rollers

The pawl arm will also be under a lot of stress so we'll reinforce it with a side of a binder clip:

Put a slight bend into the binder clip piece so that the final shape of the pawl will also be curved (image C)
Splice the pawl arm into two segments
Put super glue on both sides of the binder clip side
Slip the binder clip piece in between the spliced pawl arm
Hold and press it together as it dries (see images D, E, F, G for finished arm)

Do this for both pawl arms.

Step 8: Building the Roller > the Pawl (Spring Mechanism)

You'll notice that the piece of binder clip has a little loop at the top where the binder clip arm used to be; this can be used to attach the spring:

Insert a 2 cm wire into the hole closer to the end of the pawl (see image B, or see image A for sketch)
Use the wire to attach one of the extension springs to the pawl (image C)
Next is to make an anchor point for the spring that attaches to the spring housing (see image F for sketch)
Cut out an 8 cm x 3 cm piece of double layered cardboard (see image D for this entire step)
Make a 0.5 radius hole for the shaft as done in previous steps
Insert one of the smaller pin fasteners close to the hole for the shaft, but far enough from the hole for the head of the fastener to lie flat against the cardboard; also ensure the hole is made along the length of the cardboard
Use the paper fastener to secure the other end of the spring to the anchor (image E)
Spread the legs of the fastener to secure it to the anchor cardboard
Turn the anchor piece so that the spring is under no tension when the pawl arm is in its normal position (image E)
Glue the anchor cardboard to the spring housing with tacky glue
Do this for both rollers

The ratchet mechanism is done!

Step 9: Building the Roller > Reinforcing the Spring Housing

This step is to reinforce the pawl arm and spring housing:

Cut a 30 cm piece of wire
Wrap around the top of the spring housing as tightly as possible
Twist the wire ends together to make sure it does not come off
Cut off the excess wire from the end

Step 10: Building the Roller > Magnetic Deactivator Clasp

It's the part that pulls the pawl arm off of the gear using magnets allowing the shaft and gear to turn freely.

The first part is a piece to go over the pawl arm that will also prevent the pawl arm from riding up on the gear:

Cut a 7 cm x 2 cm rectangle of single-layered cardboard (image A, top)
Glue one side to the pawl arm anchor point cardboard rectangle using tacky glue (image D)
Wrap the other end over the pawl arm and glue to the spring housing with tacky glue, it will be at an angle (image C)

Next is to create the magnetic system that will pull the pawl arm away from the gear:

Glue one of the smaller magnets to the end of the pawl arm with super glue
On the outside of the 7 cm x 2 cm rectangle that was just glued on, place a large magnet; the small magnet and large magnet should be attracted through the cardboard layer (image D)
Next, cut out a 3 cm x 1 cm piece of cardboard and glue one end of it to the large magnet with super glue (image A, bottom)
Glue the other end of the piece to the 7 cm x 2 cm arm that goes over the pawl; this is just to make sure that the large magnet doesn't fall off when you remove it (image E)
Glue another small magnet to the top of the pawl arm spring anchor with super glue to hold the large magnet in place when you don't want it to pull on the pawl arm

First part of the roller is done! Next is to build the spool that the scarf will wrap around.

Step 11: Building the Spool

The spool is just made of two single-layered cardboard circles with wooden skewers connecting them:

Cut two 5.1 cm radius circles from the single-layered cardboard
Within each circle, inscribe a 4.5 cm radius circle (image A)
Divide each circle into eight equal parts with 4 lines (image B)
Where each line intersects the 4.5 cm radius circle, make a hole just large enough for a skewer (total of 8 holes)
Similar to previous steps, cut an X in the center with each line of the X being 1 cm and puncture the cross with the shaft
Do the same for a second circle
Slide the circle to the base of the wooden skewers, and glue each skewer in place with super glue
Do the same with the second circle, but glue it at the other end of the skewers for a cylindrical shape; both pieces should now be connected via the 8 skewers
Place the spool onto the shaft

The spool will turn with the shaft so it needs to be glued to it:

Reinforce the hole of each plate with super glue
Apply tacky glue on the inside side of each plate and the shaft

The spool is done! (see last two images for finished spool)

Step 12: Handle > Building Struts

I think this part is pretty self explanatory:

Cut two 12 cm pieces of skewer, and one 11 cm piece of skewer (image A)
For each of the 12 cm skewers, cut a slant on one end (image A)
Insert the 11 cm skewer into the base of the spring housing (into the double-layered cardboard) (image C)
Once you have the hole, take the skewer out and fill the hole with tacky glue and reinsert the skewer and allow the glue to dry
For the base of the bottom struts, cut out a 6 cm x 3 cm rectangle of double layered cardboard
Create a hole in the middle of the cardboard for the shaft (image B)

Next is to connect the 12 cm skewers:

For each skewer, sandwich it at the each end of the cardboard rectangle between the two layers (image E)
Glue in place with tacky glue

Step 13: Handle > Connecting Struts

Next is connecting the struts to form the part to hold:

Cut out two 16 cm x 4 cm pieces of cardboard
For each piece, puncture two holes, 1 cm from each end, and 2 cm from each side (see image A)
Widen the holes
Slide one of the cardboard pieces onto the wooden struts as shown in the picture (image B, C)
Fold the cardboard piece in half onto the skewers, glue together and clamp (image D)
Take the second piece of cardboard and do the same thing, it will go over the first piece to add extra support
Do this for both rollers

Step 14: Handle > Securing the End

This is an end cap to make sure the bottom struts don't fall off:

Cut a 2 cm x 2 cm ring with a hole wide enough for the shaft (image A)
Glue the ring onto the end of the shaft (image B, C)

Step 15: Attaching the Scarf

To attach the scarf, we will first turn each roller to wind up the spring, and then release it so when the spring unwinds it will roll up the scarf:

Turn each roller 3 times in the direction it wants to go (the direction that the pawl allows it to go in)
Attach the scarf as shown in the image, fold the scarf around one of the skewers of the spool back onto itself, and stitch it shut
Do this for both spools, making sure that the right side is showing once wound up
Release each spool one at a time by flipping down the magnetic clasp and carefully letting it roll up the scarf