My Own Little Shangri -La

The weather was nice enough today to take a stroll on the little beach across the street. Even though I have lived in Hoboken most of my life some things about this town are still amazing to me: how a song from "Hair" magically plays on my ipod when I pass by the house where that musical was written; that on a nice day I can take a walk down by a beach on the Hudson, and that so many important artists lived in this mile-square city.

So, in honor of our little walk on the beach, I've named this scarf pattern after former Hoboken resident Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Mystery of Marie Roger.



Surely you had to read the story in high school, but did you know the real Marie Roger was fished out of the water not 100 yards from where I am sitting right now, blogging? Poe set his story in Paris, but since he lived in Hoboken for only a short time he didn't get a chance to study the rich and romantic history of the town .



I made this scarf out of about 300 yards of leftover Noro in three different colorways. Because of the unique striping properties of Noro I was finding it hard to come up with something that made good use of the bold colors of the three skeins and looked unified to boot. So, like another Hobokenite, I Did It My Way (but I really did it sideways).

Here's the pattern; it's adapted from Harmony Guide Knit & Purl.

Needles: I used size 10.5 circulars.

Cast on 250 stitches. Yes,that's lot of casting on. I prefer a knitted cast on myself, which gives a more flexible finished edging on a long scarf like this.

Row 1: Purl all
Row 2: Purl all
Row 3: Knit all
Row 4: Knit 2, *slip 1, knit 1. Repeat from *.
Row 5: Knit 1 *Yarn forward, slip one, yarn back, knit 1. Repeat from *; knit 2 at end.
Row 6: Knit 1 *Yarn forward, knit 2 together. Repeat from *.

Repeat these 6 rows until you run out of yarn or until you think the scarf is wide enough. You get a great lacy look without those pesty charts to follow.