Fluid Stitches

Waterfalls can be such poignant imagery, symbolizing a range of emotions as greatly varied as the potential power of water itself. Whether it be viewed as rapids pounding down the end of the road to their destruction, or the quiet scene of serenity that their awesome beauty lends itself to, waterfalls are always an impressive sight to behold. Simple in concept, yet somehow their appearance never seems to become uninteresting. It takes a number of very specific albeit common conditions to occur at once, which could be one reason that large ones aren’t quite so typical of the average landscape here in the US in general. There are always crude man-made attempts at cheating nature, but it is hard to replicate something of that caliber that would truly do this phenomenon justice.

While those sad plastic landscapes evoke nothing but contempt and perhaps pity in my mind, there are many other ways to pay tribute to the magnificent waterfall without belittling its power. Fabric in particular seems to lend itself well to various incarnations of water due to the fluid, amorphous nature of thin fibers woven together. Thinking along the same vein as moving fibers, it was only a matter of time before some knitting needles were thrown into the equation.

Obvious but brilliant at the same time, I wish I could take credit for such a lovely pattern, but it I don’t yet have the confidence to attempt an unguided foray into knit lace yet. It was mere luck that I was aimlessly browsing through my exhaustive collection of pattern databases one lazy afternoon that I happened to stumble across this gem, since I haven’t had a need to make scarves since my first attempts to learn the craft… I knit up so many straight lengths of intertwined yarn trying to master the basic knit stitch, I could probably stuff a mattress quite comfortably. This finding was clearly fate, seeing as I had just bought myself a couple skeins of a deep navy blue cotton yarn with no particular project in mind before that.

Not having had the pleasure to create lace in a few months, it was amazing how satisfying it was to watch the delicate waves grow longer, and how instantly soothing it was just to knit for hours on end without worrying about the instructions changing at a certain row. I will admit that it would occasionally frustrate me how many repetitions were required to accumulate a decent length, but it only took a simple reminder that the process was what mattered, not the product to get me back on track.

Knitting in this piece public frequently, a number of people mistook this river of lace as cables. Seeing the photograph included with the original, I can see how it may appear so from a far, which can be somewhat of a nifty trick if you don’t feel like hunting down your cable needles for a similar look. Most of all though, I just love how versatile this scarf is; Understated for a formal evening out, but fun and eclectic for hanging out with friends. Just like the many states of water, this ‘falling water’ scarf can be anything you make it out to be.

In this case atleast, it can be considered a positive thing to be making waves!