In lower Meherabad, India, there is a blue car in the middle of a field. It used to carry Meher Baba. Now, it’s resting.
This picture was on my ‘to knit’ list for many years. I am happy I finally did it, and it always pleases my heart with it child-like quality.
This scarf is a continuation of rainbow poem shawls. The name I call it for short is Karma. It has 7 squares, symbolising our journey towards God:
It took me 5 tries to get the look that gives what I mean. This is the last and finished one:
Knitwise: start with all yarns, metered/modular knitting, and loose a yarn/color each step.
If you are interested in the pattern (knit or crochet ) let me know.
Here is the front and back side:
and here are some of the previous attempts:
and another:
This pattern is available as a free download
This is a fun & easy way to work with color: it’s not exactly intarsia, nor stranding.
Start with 5 yarns and drop them in place as you CO.
Continue by playing with the yarns as you knit, moving them here and there to your heart’s delight.
Then, pick up all the yarns as you BO to create the fringe on the other side.
In the end, there is no finishing work to do,
no tails to weave in, just comfortably snuggling into it.
• THERE IS NO NEED TO STRAND or TWIST YARNS,
instead use the ds st is a color switching point. After knitting it, you have a choice between 2 colors: would you like to continue with this yarn or the other? That’s what gives the freedom and ease of color in this pattern.
The more freely you use this ability to switch color at a whim, the more fun and unique your shawl will be.
I made it into shawls and scarves, but it is perfect for a pet blanket or lapghan/afghan.
Beginner: just do it all in garter st and don’t worry.
Advanced: use it as a base to do different patterns on.
buy it nowThis pattern is for an extra large, showy shawl. Add colors to your heart’s delight, and don’t worry about mistakes. Instead – incorporate them into the knitting.
Knit upwards, starting with one yarn, adding one at a time, and ending with 7 yarns.
Knitted with short rows for shaping, and garter st for the edge-stripes, and the upward bands.
Special effect: on WS rows, when knitting the upward garter bands, carry the yarn on the right side of the
knitting.
Size:approx. 77×26” 195x66cm”, depending on the yarns.
Size is easy to adjust by knitting less sts and less rows.
Materials:
1 st marker
Yarn: 7 med/worsted – bulky yarns, approx. 75/85m each.
• The key is to use novelty yarns, or any other yarns with special texture.
• Have a big variety of yarns, and alternate them. Example:
if you have 2 eye lash yarns, put a boucle or self striping yarn in between them for better effect.
• Don’t worry about running out of yarn. Instead, be adventurous, and substitute a different yarn whenever you run out. This will make the knitting and the shawl more intriguing.
Needles: US 15 / 10 mm
Gauge: 8 sts X 12 r = 4”/10cm.
Using different kinds of yarn makes the gauge more an average than an exact number.
Skill level: intermediate. Pattern includes mix of st.st and garter, inc, stranding, intarsia, and short rows.
Hope you’ll enjoy it!
The rainbow poem is a series of showy shawls/scarves,
with little variations in how they look and how they are knit.
It is still work in progress, but the first 2 are ready as a pattern.
Rainbow poem. Mild.
Photo above and below, knitted with 5 yarns. Starting at one tip with all yarns, knitting them together through the whole piece, and finishing at the other tip with all 5 together. This shawl has a lot of sweetness to it, and sits beautifully on the back.
See more details here.
Above, the pattern is called “Rainbow poem. Wild”.
These shawls are bigger, knitted from side to side like the Mild version, but with 7 yarns and a different stripe width.
For more details, look here.
The third is called: “Rainbow poem. Landscape”. It is the easiest one to knit as it is knitted upward, starting with one yarn and adding one more with each stripe. It’s size is L-XL, and the pattern will be ready in 2-3 weeks.
The forth is “The bird of paradise”, and its the most complicated one:
And I’m ashame to say that I have few more version of it that I would like to try… Oh dear!
Here are some of the charts in the book:
These are the first ones, being easy knits:
More landscapes and how to knit the border as you knit along:
These are pictures that were done with the same chart (the chart is for the blue one):
Portraits, show knitting in ‘invisible’ technique using 1 yarn and reverse st.st to create the image, and the advantage of knitting sideways:
Charts about working from drawing:
And adding your own writing:
Special techniques (knitting in quilting & weaving styles):
How to knit a group project (no charts here):
And some heart charts we used in these projects:
I enjoyed knitting them all!
Dear Tracy,
I can not find your comment, so will answer you here, as other people asked about the book too.
The book is a work book. It explains how to knit pictures, from easy ones to more involved. The patterns in it are like exercises. They are meant for you to knit them and hopefully hang them on your wall or give as gifts.
You may not sell my patterns, but you may do many pictures using the charts in the book, and even sell the pictures you knitted yourself.
I am saying that the charts are exercises because my purpose was to give you enough information so that you can continue to make your own charts and do your own pictures.
So, to sum it up, the patterns in the book are for you to knit in order to learn the techniques used.
After the picture is knitted and BO, you can block it. For this you will need to stretch it upside down on foam board or anything else handy, spray lightly with water and let dry for 24 hours. Because of spraying it with water, you need to use stainless steel pins. You can buy them in a sewing store.
Some people prefer ironing their knits, I do not.
After the picture is well dry, you can attach it to foam board that is cut to fit the size of the picture. For this you can use straight pins (they do not have to be stainless steel).
Some people glue the picture instead of using pins, I do not.
See next blog post for detailed account of the charts in the book.
The book is available on Amazon.com
Good Luck, hope you’ll enjoy it, and feel free to ask questions.
‘The Real I’ scarf is based on Meher Baba hand writing from the book ‘In God’s Hand’.
Through the whole book, Baba never uses the word ‘I’ for Himself, but only as ‘the real I’, ‘the infinite I’, ‘the limited I’, etc.
The scarf – very rich, soft, double stranded, with some double knit, is huge.
It’s almost like wearing a soft dress that reaches nearly to the ankles!
Husband did the drawing,
I did the knitting,
and he did some embroidery on the white cat.
It’s fun when we work together like that.
Pattern is available here.
Rainbow colors delights my heart, and they are also a symbol for Meher Baba, so – double the fun!
Both scarves are knitted sideways.
Scarf one is v easy. Knit sideways and cut the yarn at the end of each row, leaving long tails.
CO # of sts for the length you want, in red, and leave long tail.
Row 1: knot red & orange, living long tails of both. k orange.
Row 2: Knot orange and yellow, living long tails. Knit yellow.
Continue like this to full rainbow ( green, blue, purple, light blue).
If the scarf is too narrow for your liking, repeat your steps backward:
after the light blue knit a purple row, then blue, green, yellow, orange and finish with red.
Give the tails a nice ‘haircut’, or live them wild!
Scarf 2 is more complex, with black and white yarns as dividers between the rainbow colors.
Knitted with short rows and sl. sts.
Picture Knitting 
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