Coming Undone

Knitting this scarf has become a Sisyphean ordeal. At first I assumed that the pattern's 80 stitches (in the round) would yield a scarf too thin for my taste, so I cast on 120 stitches. After putting in 1.5 feet's worth of work on it, I decided that 12 in. wide was too wide, especially in the round--the doubled fabric made the scarf very bulky.

I frogged (knitspeak for unraveling massive amounts of stitches) the whole thing and started over with 88 stitches. After 2 feet of work and about 5 months of the scarf hibernating within my stash (knitspeak for massive amounts of yarn, none of which is assigned to a project), my husband asked me what ever had happened to my Penelope scarf.

The film starring Christina Ricci greatly influenced my need to find a pattern and make the scarf for myself. The unique, stained glass-esque scarf plays a big role in the movie. Christina Ricci's character "Penelope," born with the curse of a pig's nose, is kept cloistered in her parents' mansion, until she decides to run away, wearing the scarf to hide her nose from the public. I first saw the movie on the plane home from China, so it was bound to be associated with good feelings for me.

After the inquiry from my husband, I pulled the scarf out of my stash about a week ago, to start working on it again. However, this was the 88-stitch version, and after a few rows, it still seemed too wide. I decided to frog it again and eventually cast on 72 stitches. I was determined to finish the 72-stitch version. So I spent most of last week working on it, and last night it measured 1.5 feet. I mean, it's knit in the round, so not only was it wide, but also doubly thick fabric. When knitting in the round, one must do double the knitting for the same length or scarf. Also irking, the colored hexagons in the movie scarf are smaller, but let's not be too picky when there are very few free patterns available (that mention the movie specifically) for this project.

A new Ravelry search for "stained glass" yielded a pattern I hadn't seen before. I started the small version this morning and frogged the original for the last time this afternoon. "Stained glass" has smaller colored circles and is knit flat. I enjoy knitting it, and feel like all the work is actually adding to the length of the scarf rather quickly.



Perhaps it is fitting that the name is also connected to Penelope the wife of Odysseus, who, while waiting for Odysseus to return home (which took 20 years total), staved off her persistent suitors by weaving a shroud. She said she would choose a suitor when she finished the shroud, but at night she would unravel the work, so as to postpone her choice, over the course of THREE years. That's commitment...both to a husband and a project.

-吴碧芙