Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “l’oiseau de feu” (firebird) tells the story of Prince Ivan, who one day captures a bird with brilliant plumage, the Firebird. in exchange for her freedom, the bird gives him one of her feathers and her promise to come to his aid if ever he needs her. after the bird has flown away, Prince Ivan catches sight of 13 princesses who are captives in the magic garden of Kashchei, the evil magician. though warned, he tears open the fence to follow the girls, whereupon he is suddenly confronted by Kashchei himself. when the magician tries to turn him to stone, Ivan pulls out the feather and summons the Firebird, who appears true to her word, kills the magician and frees the prince and the princesses.

the main pattern of the scarf shows the fence of the magic garden with the beautiful princesses behind, while in the border you find the feathers of the firebird.

the three-dimensional mesh effect of the fence pattern with the lacy details caught my attention in a Japanese pattern book (‘knitting patterns book 250’ by Shida Hitomi, Nihon Vogue) and I used it with some minor modifications.
the feather borders just came to be as a continuation of the main pattern.

2009/05/22 Erratum:
in row 15 of the main pattern, the square directly to the left of the left red line should be a yo. a corrected pattern is uploaded.