Dayflower

Washing and drying all my hand spun yarn for the Spin-Off sweater is taking a long time, so while I've picked up this small project to work on in the mean time.

I came across this a few weeks ago while scouting around for yarn at a local shop called Full Circle. It's a long skinny scarf made out of very soft yarn called Tajmahal (8% cashmere, 22% silk and 70% merino). I was so attracted to this  curved vine-like pattern that I instantly asked for the pattern after scooping up the yarn.

After getting this far with the stitch pattern, I started to wonder if this was a unique pattern or one that has been around a while.  I quickly identified it using Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. She calls it dayflower and says that it has been around since the 19th century.

I graphed the pattern this weekend but sadly can't get my HP scanjet scanner working.  I just contacted their support and found out they have a software problem. So, I don't suggest buying their products.

Here's the stitch pattern written in knitting terms. Just beware that it's not an easy one to do and takes a lot of patience because it doesn't have predicable repeats and the number of stitches per row varies.

Cast on 36 sts.
Row 1: wrong side and all other wrong side rows EXCEPT rows 5 and 13 - Purl.
Row 2: k2, *yo k2tog, yo, (k2tog) 3 times, k2, yo, k3, yo, ssk, yo, k2*. (36 sts).
Row 4: k2, *yo, k2tog, (k3 tog) twice, yo, k1, yo, k2, (ssk, yo) twice, k2*. (32 sts).
Row 5: p11, p2tog, p13, p2tog, p4.   (30 sts.)
Row 6: k2, *yo, k3tog, yo, k3, yo, k2, (ssk, yo) twice, k2*. (32 sts.)
Row 8: k2, *yo, k2tog, yo, k1, (yo, k2, ssk) twice, yo, ssk, yo, k2*. (36 sts.)
Row 10: k2, *yo, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, k2, (ssk) 3 times, yo, ssk, yo, k2*. (36 sts.)
Row 12: k2, *(yo, k2tog) twice, k2, yo, k1, yo, (sl1 - k2tog - psso) twice, ssk, yo, k2*. (32 sts.) Row 13: p4, p2togb, p13, p2togb, p11. (30 sts.)
Row 14: k2, *(yo, k2tog) twice, k2, yo, k3, yo, sl1 - k2tog - psso, yo, k2*. (32 sts.)
Row 16: k2, *yo, k2tog, yo, (k2tog, k2, yo) twice, k1, yo, ssk, yo, k2*. (36 sts.)

Terms:
k = knit
k2tog = knit two together
p = purl
k3tog = knit three together
p2togb = purl two together through the back loops
sl1-k2tog-psso = slip one, knit two together and pass the slipped stitch over
yo = yarn over
*= after working once, repeat once more from * to *

Comments

[Rebekah]

Wow I love that pattern! It's so inviting. Thanks for sharing.

[Sue]

Beautiful!! I can only imagine how soft that is, with cashmere, merimo, AND silk!

[Melinda]

Thanks. The scarf is going to be so warm and cozy.

Gosh, I just spent valuable knitting time trying to get my HP scanner working. After lots of time with HP support I found out that it's a "known issue". What a waste of money and time. No more HP scanners for me.

[Colleen]

Good grief that is a gorgeous stitch pattern. Tempts me to try lace...