The Mere

"Alive without breath; as cold as death; never thirsting, ever drinking clad in mail, never clinking. Drowns on dry land, thinks an island is a mountain; thinks a fountain is a puff of air. So sleek, so fair! What a joy to meet! We only wish to catch a fish, so juicy-sweet!"

-Gollum’s song

When I was designing this piece, DH opined that, " NO ONE is going to buy a pattern named 'Dead Marsh'!"

This is when sneaky designers migrate to the web domain to determine if said marsh has another name - lol...

I think the dead marshes possess a melancholy and lonely beauty. It is a vast & barren landscape, full of wispy grasses and pools of stagnant water. It glows with the light of "corpse candles" as Gollum calls them. We may be more familiar with the term, "will-o-wisp."

In working on this design, I also have had in the back of my mind the haunting and terrifying scenes as Frodo is pulled under the water by the dead warriors and that feeling of being trapped by seaweed like vines and limbs.

I wanted the beads to look like the lights and the entire piece to flow like seaweed.

How'd I do?

The design reminds me of my ill fated "Drizzle" design, the one that got away...

THE MERE
THE TWO TOWERS SERIES

An organic stole in beaded cables & lace Size: 18-24 inches wide by 64-72 inches long (smaller if left unblocked)

Materials: 1320 yds Sanguine Gryphon Gaia lace or other lace weight yarn
5000 size 8 seed beads
Size 3 (US) needles
Crochet hook for beading; tapestry needle for grafting
Gauge: not important to this piece
Intermediate level - charted & written directions

Make sure you click on the images to get a close up. This piece is subtle and, like the Mere itself, warrants closer examination.

The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon's Gaia lace; the color is Sunflower Sutra. the beads are Miyuke 8-0234

NOTE: WHILE SUNFLOWER SUTRA WAS A SEASONAL COLOR, SANGUINE GRYPHON HAS TOLD ME THEY HAVE 36 SKEINS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO USE THE EXACT YARN.

The pattern combines cables, beading and a lace. A perfect tri-fecta!

The repeats are predictable and not too long so this one goes a little quicker than some. While the bead count is high, it is a no brainer to place them. Stole is knit in one piece with the exception of the final end border, which is grafted at the end.


The bottom border is kinda funky: a bit of leaf, a bit of shibori-like 3D point.

I was going to leave mine unblocked to enhance the organic feel to it & highlight the cables...



But the blocking really shows off the subtle glow of the beading, the sheen of the yarn & the sinuous nature of the lace pattern.


I really love this one & hope you do too!