For the yarn, I chose Noro Kureyon, the yarn everyone loves to hate. I chose the brightest colorway available and bought 2 skeins. Noro regularly discontinues colors, so make sure you buy enough- 2 skeins should do it unless you’re planning to use small needles. I also chose the Wool Peddler’s handpicked recycled silk, again making a special note to pick the brightest colors possible.

Pro-tip: the finished piece should come out to be 14″X28″, but buy your pillow insert AFTER you knit in case it’s a little bigger or smaller.

Gauge: 3 sts per inch. On smaller needles, knit a swatch and calculate cast on stitches, allowing for room for lace stitches to stretch (i.e. cast on about 10-20 LESS.)

Using size 10 needles, cast on 90 stitches with yarn A- Kureyon.
Feather & Fan Stitch:
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: *YO, k1, YO, k1, YO, K2tog, K2tog, K2tog, YO, k1, YO, k1, YO, k1, repeat from * to end.
Row 4: Knit.

Repeat 2X, then switch to yarn B- recycled silk. Continue pattern, switching yarns every 8 rows. Repeat until piece measures 14″, then loosely bind off. Sew two edges of the rectangle together to form a square, leaving one side open to insert pillow. Insert pillow and stitch third side. You’re done!

Optional: sew a fabric lining for the pillow to avoid the white pillow showing through.

The tecnique is very basic- you wet the scarf and apply the dye with a paintbrush. It’s very similar in skill to watercolor. You can achieve some powerful effects by tossing on some salt and alcohol, both of which absorb, bleed, and distort the dye. You can also paint with a resist that keeps the dye from bonding with the fabric- this allows the piece to become more like a watercolor painting with different sections of paint and color, or lines in between separate sections. An example from painter Puteri:

Less impressive (but hey it was my first!) here is mine:

close-up of the salt effect:

Once you have the scarf finished, the rest of the process is pretty time consuming. The dyes we used were heat set. Once dry, we ironed the scarf one ironing board section at a time. After being set, the piece is washable. The colors fade a bit, but it’s really rather pretty that way- more like a watercolor. You can use more vibrant dyes, but the process is much more of a pain in the ass. Here is the finished product:

A project I would love to try again!