The Flower of Life Scarf
Last week I cast on for this scarf. It was kind of inspired by the Kidsilk Haze Camisole and Cowl in Weekend Knitting but I also had this same stitch pattern flagged in a stitch dictionary of mine as well.
This scarf has given me a bit of fits. I started it at our second SnB gathering on everyother Tuesday evenings. That was mistake number one. While the pattern is *really* repetitive it did take some time getting accustomed to so there was much knitting followed by often more tinking. Tinking in mohair! Let’s just say it wasn’t too pleasurable, LOL! Mistake number two was the fact that I was using the same size needles called for in Weekend Knitting - US 10.5. But, I’m not knitting with Kidsilk Haze, but rather with a gorgeous but much more substatial Collinette Mohair (in Turqoise) that the lovely and talented Ashley brought back from Denmark for my birthday last year.
So, even though I did manage to finally knit about 3 or 4 inches in the two hours of SnB on Tuesday I had to frog it all. Yes, I did say frog and I did say I was knitting with mohair. I have to say, it was totally doable. I did end up scrapping about the first yard of the ball but really only because of the multiple tinkings combined with this frogging. I decided to make a significant jump in needle size as on the US 10.5s the scarf was *very* dense and thick and wouldn’t drape (well, if you can really tell that from 3 or 4 inches of length). I wasn’t looking forward to knitting mohair on bamboo, but all my large circs are bamboo. I jumped up to the US 15s and it’s been soooo much better! The Clover bamboo needles have a much better point for the lace work than the really blunt Turbos and the mohair seems to slide along just fine.
I have still had some trouble with it though. We had a back-log of Olympics to watch this weekend since DH was no longer sick and back at work. But since it was nearing the end we were talking tense moments such as the Men’s Curling Semi-Finals and Finals. I needed to be *watching* the TV and this pattern isn’t so much a non-looking pattern with all the PSSOs that go over two sts. So, I’ve tinked back another 2-3 inches off this because I got off on the stitch count and got cocky and wasn’t counting after each pattern row. It evidently took me a while to realize I was off :-/ But, it’ll be good SnB knitting as I can certainly talk and listen while knitting it, jut not watch things, LOL!
Now, some may be wondering where I came up with the name Flower of Life. Well, The Flower of Life is an ancient symbol found in Egypt and many other places that consists of interlocking circles that make a flower-like pattern (many other patterns can be found in it, so many so that there is a board game based on it). While I was knitting this scarf I kept thinking that the formation of stitches made me thinking of some sort of geometric pattern that was common. Well, DH and I finally cracked open the DaVinci’s Challenge that I got for Christams from SIL3 and played that this weekend (it’s a great two person game BTW) and I suddenly knew what the knitting reminded me of. It is hard to see since it is mohair and it isn’t a perfect match by any means, but I’ve only rough-blocked the scarf and suspect the similarity to be even stronger once the scarf is completed and properly blocked. So, that is why I’m calling it the Flower of Life Scarf.
I *love* this stitch pattern and suspect I’ll be using it in other things over time as well.
