Have many remnants of fine yarns? Here is the master recipe for the eye-catching scarf. it includes the concept of color change from the American weaver Richard Landis (see photos from the exhibit in Cooper-Hewitt Museum of design in References below) and Fibonacci numbers.
Inspirations
The inspiration behind the scarf was a wall hanging I saw in Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City.
Nature’s design secret
Mother Nature programmed us from birth to find plants, especially flowers, beautiful. At the core of plant’s growth, arrangement of its petals and seeds is Fibonacci series.
Fibonacci numbers stack like this: starting with 2, the next number is the sum of the previous two:
1 + 2 = 3 2 + 3 = 5 3 + 5 = 8 8 + 5 = 13 13 + 8 = 21 etc. etc.
Fibonacci numbers have direct connection to Golden Angle and Golden Rule, two important design principles that the humans have been borrowing from Nature since the time immemorial. Some references about the natural patterns are in the section Literature below. Enough of science. Now let’s get to knitting.
Pattern
The pattern is simple – columns of rectangles.
It is the rectangle sizes, their spacing and color changes that give rhythm to this profusion of bright colors.
Each rectangle is the height of Fibonacci number – 5,8,13 rows.
Within each rectangle two complimentary colors (2+3), (3+5), (5+8) rows.
5 rows of background color separate the rows of rectangles. The width of rectangles is 3 stitches, separated by 3 stitches of background color.
The height of each row is picked rather randomly, but there are a few rules which do the trick.
Change only one color in any row. The next change of color – background or foreground – should be minimum 2 rows after.
Each two-tone rectangle is surrounded by “friendly” colors, i.e. background color, the colors of preceding and following rectangles should be in crisp harmony.
Vertically, as you knit, the color that ends the previous two-tone rectangle should begin the next rectangle of the same two tones. (aqua-blue, hunter-jade, blue-aqua, jade-hunter). This principle I stole from weaver Richard Landis.
To tie the colors together: repeat rectangles of a particular spectrum more often. I chose to repeat rectangles in range of dark green-apple green-chartreuse-yellow every other row. Mother Nature told us that green-yellow shades get along with many bright colors.
Materials, tools & technique
There are 22 colors in this scarf. It is 3 meters (9 ft) long.
The yarns were various luxury remnants: alpaca, wool-silk blend, thin kid mohair, angora. Anything you have for #1-3 US needles. It will all even out at the end!
For background colors I chose smooth yarns of subtler shade.
Kid mohair and angora gave a wonderful ‘haze’ to rectangles.
Technique: stranded color work, knitted flat. But the fabric resists any blocking and curls into a tube. So it to go with a flow: knit it as a tube.|
Needle size: #4 US
If I had to do it again…
… I would have knitted this scarf in a round, like a tube. It did not matter how many times I blocked it: it rolled back into a tube. No point to fight with physics.
That’s about it… Play with colorful yarns and Fibonacci numbers!
Now it is time to create your own pattern…
Here are a few examples of using Fibonacci numbers in pattern design. You can go from simple stripes to rectangles with as few as two colors.
References
Essay “Plant Numerology” in gorgeous book The Beauty of Numbers in Nature: Mathematical Patterns and Principles from the Natural World by Ian Stewart (The MIT Press) gave me the idea of using Fibonacci numbers.
The wall-hangings of Richard Landis was on display in Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City. I took a few less than flattering pictures. Landis frequently uses sewing threads for his weaving.
Of yarn and cloth 