simplicity

Last night, after about five false starts, I finally cast on for the final version of Anya's yellow scarf. I looked through stitch dictionaries and contemplated patterns with bumps, bobbles, cables, reversible textures, ribbing, short rows, picture motifs, you name it. I started with moss stitch and decided the back-and-forth of knits and purls would be too tedious for a whole scarf. Then I started over with trinity stitch and decided that all the purl 3tog would drive me mad. Then I thought about cables, but couldn't find my cable needle and we were watching TV and I didn't want to get up and besides, cables only look good on one side of the fabric unless you do a fancy reversible stitch, but I didn't want to get that elaborate. Then I cast on for a textured pattern and decided it was turning out too wide.

I ripped it out once again and just looked at the yarn. What does this want to be? I thought to myself. It wants to be a yellow scarf, sure, but how can I make it right? Then I thought about Elizabeth Zimmerman and her love for garter stitch. Aha.



There is nothing clever or innovative about this scarf. I just cast on 20 stitches and am knitting every row, slipping the first stitch to make a neat edge. It will be a plain and simple scarf, nice and narrow to comfortably fit a little girl's neck and keep it warm through the winter. The yarn is lovely Rambouillet wool in a perfect, bright yellow. If I knit neatly and consistently enough, garter stitch is all that's necessary to make this scarf. Not everything hast to be a challenge. Garter stitch in knitting is like scales and arpeggios to a musician: it requires nothing more than good, clean technique and lots and lots of repetition.

Sometimes simplicity is best. I think this will be just right. (Though I may end up making rainbow pompoms and sewing them on later. We'll see.)