What inspires a design? Anything and everything. It’s simply a matter of what catches your fancy at a particular time and place. What inspired this design? Several things. My home, my love of lace, and a skein of hand-dyed, hand-spun Suri alpaca/wool blend yarn. I chose two Estonian lace patterns to represent all the lovely conifers that surround my home. The nupps on the body of the scarf have a bead embellishment in the center to represent the little wild flowers that bloom at the base of the conifers in spring. The scarf is knit in two pieces then joined in the center using a kitchener stitch. The scarf is knit in a slightly asymmetrical pattern with one half being comprised of 4 patterns repeats, while the other half is comprised of 4 1/2 pattern repeats. This was done so the “trees” meet in the center while still keeping the “flow” of the lace pattern.

A little bit about the yarn. While a hand-spun yarn was used, a commercial yarn will work just fine. I chose the Suri alpaca/wool blend because I like the halo and softness that the Suri alpaca gives the yarn while the wool gives it elasticity. I feel it’s the best of both worlds and is one of my favorite blends to work with.