Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Transitions

Here's a pretty good scarf from a few weeks ago that I am only now getting around to documenting!

the works

This required one skein of Tribble, in Peacock, knitted on 2.75mm needles. The finished dimensions are 16x66", but the fabric has a lot of give and stretch and it could probably be blocked bigger. Forgive me for the ton of detail pictures: I am very pleased with how this idea turned out.

The scarf is based on Mrs. Montague's pattern, and starts there with no modifications:

the densely-patterned end!

But I wanted to experiment with the density of the pattern, removing motifs to thin it out. When you pick out a diamond-shaped group of 9 motifs and remove the one in the centre, the pattern suddenly suggests a grid, like a chain-link fence:

transition section!

I think the suggestion-of-a-grid is still in place at the opposite end, when only the apices of the diamonds remain as isolated motifs in a field of garter stitch:

more transition!

It is startingly delicate for all that the yarn bloomed on blocking and I knit it on 2.75mm needles. Not delicate in the scheme of things. But when you lay it flat on a surface it seems to float a little.

it is awfully delicate!

My favourite part is the thinned-out pattern section. This yarn makes fabric that is exquisitely soft, and garter stitch is squishy anyway, and the combination is to die for. I almost want to double the yarn and knit a plain old garter stitch scarf on 3.5s or so—it would be time-consuming but ultimately worth the boredom, I think.

isolated motifs in a field of garter stitch!

And I am happy with how the edging came out:

edging!

The triangles between the faggoting and the outer lace pattern are arranged in pairs because I wanted the edging to be narrow enough at its narrowest point that I wouldn't have to do anything to the corners to make them lie flat. It worked: the only trick is making sure that a corner stitch lines up with a row 1 of the edging, as usual.

Now I need it to be winter already so that I can wear it instead of just admiring it from across the room....

2 comments:

Emily said...

So cool! Pretty finished product, and interesting process of going from one end to the other. Think my favorite is the intermediate stage. :-)

Alwen said...

That's beautiful! And I love the yak/silk one in your earlier post.