Pocahontas' Scarf

Several months ago my LYS (I use the term relatively.....if I were living in a huge metro area I might drive an hour across town to visit a "local" yarn shop. Ewephoria Yarns (www.ewephoriayarns.com) is the closest LYS I have and is approximately 42 miles away in another town. Considering I live in a "city" by Iowa standards [25,000 people] and Ewephoria is two or three counties away in a town of 2000 people, some people find it odd. That's all. Just saying.) owner, Leslie, organized an event on Ravelry wherein she invited knitters to creat 6x6" or 12x12" blocks which would be sewn together to form a beautifully handknit, diverse scarf to adorn the gigantic statue of Pocahontas that welcomes people to town who are coming in via Highway 3.

I was happy to knit a couple blocks. She was happy to get a great response from kind and generous knitter across 21 states in the U.S. and from 5 countries. The scarf was put onto the Princess in time for Thanksgiving and the start of holiday shopping and travel.

I missed going up for the big moment when the actual scarfing occured. However, since I edit the local monthly magazine, I decided it was high time to cover Pocahontas and drove up there yesterday to do my story. Here's what I found!



What fun! I spent some time visiting with Leslie for the magazine article (and buying more yarn, of course!) and discovered some interesting things. The scarf is 36 feet long. One lovely volunteer from Ireland actually sheared her sheep, carded and combed the wool, spun the yarn and dyed it, then knit up her square and sent it. Leslie remembered it as an orange square somewhere about 5 or so blocks up from one of the ends.

(Here's a close up in case you can spot it. Take note of the two blocks the arrows point to.)



See the Union Jack (flag of England)?? That square was contributed by a knitter from Gravesend, Kent, England. That location just happens to be the eternal resting place of the historical Pocahontas who married John Rolfe and went back to live with him in England. What a great connection for this small town in northwest Iowa named after the Native American princess!

The other block in burgundy and cream with the slip-stitch color work was in fact knitted by yours truly. (The other block I did with cables falls at the back of the neck of the statue and isn't visible in the photo.)

What a great thing Ravelry is to have brought all these people together for such a fun and whimsical project! And how great of Leslie at Ewephoria Yarns and the people of Pocahontas, Iowa to display the project....turning one piece of "art" into two!

Happy Knitting!