Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Repetition

I've finally finished it - my second rendition of the 'Flapper' scarf

Flip flap 1
flip flap 4
'Flapper' scarf by Lynne Barr
from Knitting New Scarves
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Zara

I've been working on this, sporadically, for more than two months. It's had outings to the knitting groups I participate in, and many people have now heard me grumble about it. It's not the pattern itself, which I think is wonderful - very innovative with its attached flaps that bring a three-dimensional geometry to the scarf. It's partly the repetition, where the surprise and delight of the first encounter with the project has vanished. But mainly, it's the tedium of all the casting on and the multitudinous weaving in of ends.

flip flap 2

Each attached flap creates two ends to be woven in - a total of a hundred ends! No more. Last time. Never again.

I've made this second scarf for a work colleague whom I like. He admired my green-and-grey scarf that I wore throughout winter and wanted a version of the scarf as a gift for his wife. They're travelling to the Great Lakes area of the USA at Christmas time and the warmth of this scarf (effectively it's double DK texture) will be welcome. He also chose the colours.

I love my own version of this scarf. Almost every time I wore it in winter it was admired - often by complete strangers. When you wear it, the flaps shape and reshape themselves in a way that is reminiscent of fish or reptile scales; overlapping and then moving apart.

flip flap 3

I'm so pleased to have finished this repetition, and hope both my work colleague and his wife will enjoy the scarf.

2 comments:

Cecilia said...

The scarf is beautiful! You must be relieved to be able to move on to something else!

Rose Red said...

I do love this scarf - in fact, when I saw you wearing yours (at the Knit in Public day this year) I decided I wanted to make one too. Although the thought of 100 ends does somewhat fill me with dismay.

But it is a fantastic structural piece - I will make one, I will!

You are very generous to make this for a colleague!