Magic?

"You can do magic
You can have anything that you desire
Magic, and you know
You're the one who can put out the fire"
-America

The needles have been flying so fast at Sunflower Designs, it's a good thing I knit with metal needles.

Otherwise, the friction from wooden ones might have been enough to set off a conflagration!

Designing a "little sister" scarf project to echo the lines and feeling of Moroccan Days/ Arabian Nights has proven an interesting challenge thus far:

How do I deliver all the beauty in half the size and twice the simplicity?

How do I come up with a second design that both references the original and provides knitters a fresh twist.

The very best projects take flight on the wings of our imagination.

So how do I make the Magic Carpet fly?

Once again, I went back to my mantra: Just because I haven't doesn't mean I can't. I also remembered some dandy advice on the best way to write, which I read somewhere.

Apply seat to chair.

Sometimes the truth is far simpler than we make it out to be.

I swapped out the beaded fringe for a nifty little scalloped cast on and a beaded rib. Same impact, less intimidating.

The next challenge? Finding a simpler and narrower way to add a little bling along the sides of the scarf. Solution? A little 5 stitch 2 row repeat beaded edging with a yarnover for interest.

The persian windows remain the same as on the larger piece.

Another challenge I set for myself: except for the Persian lace at the end, the entire scarf has plain purl back rows. No two sided lace here.

Two lines of palmetto leaves march up the sides, divided by one repeat of the chevron pattern.

The palmetto pattern eventually dissolves into a transition panel, which winds up as five repeats of the chevron pattern.

This stitch pattern continues to the back of the neck. Second half is completed the same way and joined at the halfway point, as in the stole (but no beads to irritate or rub.)

Scarf will block out to 12in. by 60in. and take 850 yards of Kim's lovely laceweight.

The sample is knit in her Moroccan Spice color, and it is precisely the faded red of my grandmother's oriental carpets. I used gold beads.

Kits will be available on Friday, March 7th, exclusively at the Woolen Rabbit.

Can I do magic?

NO...

But I can do hard work.

And sometimes...

that's enough