
Want to know what I’ve been working on for the past several weeks? A scarf which is supposed to be simple, easy! You all know the pattern: Old Shale, also known as Feather and Fan…. Simple right?
Except, I’m a perfectionist. Except, I wanted to make it just perfect, exactly what I was seeing in my head. For instance, this is the classic, basic pattern for Feather and Fan:
- R1: Knit edge stitches [K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times] repeat, knit edge stitches
- R2: Knit
- R3: Knit
- R4: Knit edge stitches, Purl, Knit edge stitches
Except, I decided I didn’t want the waves to be so deep or so wide because I was using this crinkly yarn with a lot of elastic, which I had been having trouble finding a suitable pattern for (I had been dying to make Veronik Avery’s Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty: Spring 2008, but it simply did not work with the amount of elasticity in this partly nylon yarn). So I decided to make the pattern be a repeat of 12 stitches instead of the usual 18.
But that wasn’t enough. I had seen somewhere a pattern where the purl rows didn’t continue all the way across. Laurie Osborne calls it Waves & Shells and it’s really pretty, she got a lot of compliments on it.
And here is my version, modified with the 12 stitch repeat:

But something didn’t seem right. I had a hunch that the shells would look better if they were wider, as in the original 18 stitch repeat pattern. So I tried the original Feather and Fan with 12 stitches:

Go ahead and click on the pics to see the pattern up close.

Again, I thought it would look better with the original 18 stitch repeat (which I tried, but then frogged before photographing – didn’t like it at all for this particular project). One last experiment. I found this really pretty pattern on Ravelry, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

Well, unfortunately, i just didn’t think this pretty pattern was suitable for the scarf I envisioned. It’s a neat pattern because the edges are all included in the pattern and the project does not require finishing. But it really looks better as a blanket with many, many repeats.
So in the end, after all that, I am back to this!

Except….I can’t even use the many inches that I’ve already knitted because I’ve decided I want a scalloped edge as in the Feather and Fan version above. Well, I’ve cast-on again and it’s going along fine. It certainly won’t be done in time for Christmas though, which was the original plan! Why was I born this way? Please tell me I’m not the only knitter who is this neurotic!
Tags: Feather and Fan, frogging, Knitting, Modified Patterns, Old Shale, Perfectionism, Waves and Shells