Introduction

Visit Sedona or read any article about this lush artistic community, and the words “regenerative”, “sacred”, “powerful” and “mysterious” almost always come up. Is it the red rocks and the calming light they throw on even the most downtrodden spirits? Is it ancient magic imbued in the landscape?

Whatever the reason, the core message seems to be that Sedona is a place of self-exploration. A playground to try new things and open yourself up to new experiences.
And although the Sedona Bandana Cowl is at first glance a simple textured accessory of knits and purls, it also builds on itself. Worked from tip to tip, you’ll feel your knitting powers grow as you increase towards the center, then slowly wane like ripples in a pond as you approach the opposite end.

Like all transformations, be it a location or a season, too, the Sedona Bandana Cowl is designed to meet you where you need it - around your neck to safeguard your words, around your head to nurture your thoughts, over your heart to warm your love.

About the Desert Vista Pattern Collection, in collaboration with Traveling Yarn:
In collaboration with Traveling Yarn Co., I have designed a collection of knitwear accessories inspired by Sarah’s custom-milled base, Arcadia DK. A knitter’s dream, this non-superwash base is woolly with a natural loft and softness that feels as if it came directly off the sheep and is just as warm and airy, but with all the brilliance of Sarah’s impeccable dye skills in a broad range of colors.

Honoring Sarah’s home state of Arizona, this collection draws from the transformative power of wind, erosion, water, and wildlife of the desert landscapes of the southwest, and pays homage to this stark, but vital landscape.

The patterns in this collection play with textures and the elegance of a couple of simple elements that mirror the primal elements at work in a desert. Each pattern focuses on the essentials of knitting at its oldest core values: knits and purls, slipped stitches, and twisted ribbing against an open backdrop of stockinette to allow the yarn to “speak for itself”. Opposing forces of serene rest space against striking but simple visual details like finding an arroyo nestled just below a seemingly flat horizon is the balance I have recreated to honor Arcadia DK’s heritage of practical functionality as a garment for the shifting moods and weather of the desert.

Materials

Yarn
70 - 80 grams (approximately 250 -300 yds.) DK weight yarn

Yarn used in photos:
Arcadia DK in the Vice colorway

About Arcadia DK:
100% non-superwash Merino
180 yds per 50 gram skein
All USA sourced, spun, and dyed

Needles
US 6 (3.75 mm) circular needles (24” or 32” recommended), or size needed to obtain gauge.

Notions
1 tapestry needle
2 stitch markers to mark i-cord edges

Gauge & Notes
22 stitches & 32 rows = 4” in pattern

Sedona is worked flat from one tip to the other in a triangle shape, increasing along the bottom to the deepest point at approximately 14” (blocked). Both top and bottom edges feature an i-cord that is worked in each row. Pattern is a textured variation on a theme of knits and purls to create three different parallel panels of increasing textural density from the center to each tip, broken up by stockinette panels separated with garter ridges between each section to create visual flow. This bandana scarf is sized to be able to be worn both around the neck as a kerchief or around the head as a headscarf. Instructions are written.

Finished size: 32” wide x 14” deep