Hello! Today, we’re visiting De Wieden again, one half of the Wieden-Weerribben National Park. The last time I took you here was on a cold and foggy December day – the day of the Seventh Heaven photo shoot (see this blog post). Remember that big slip-stitch-and-garter ridges scarf made with sock yarn remnants?
This time it’s an agreeable 20˚C (68˚F), sunny with some clouds and quite a bit of wind. And this time we’re cycling through De Wieden instead of walking, bringing two Seventh Heaven scarves along for another photo shoot – the original big one and a new, smaller version.
Here they are side by side. The smaller version is about half the width of the original scarf and slightly shorter (approx. 21.5 cm (8½”) wide x 1.82 m (71½”) long).
Below, I am wearing the smaller Seventh Heaven scarf tied in a pretzel knot:
It is long enough to be wrapped twice around the neck with the ends tucked in and worn as a kind of cowl:
Zooming in for a closer look at the stripe pattern:
I’m being photographed on a bicycle bridge looking out over the landscape. To get an even better view, let’s leave our bicycles behind for a while and walk through this gate next to the bridge:
The footpath behind it leads to a bird watching tower:
And this is what we can see from up high – water, strips of boggy land, straight lines. Clearly a man-made landscape, witness to the peat extraction of the past:
The wet peat from the ponds was dried on small strips of land. In some places, overintensive peat cutting resulted in ever smaller strips of land that were washed away by wind and waves, forming lakes (wieden). In other places, the remaining labyrinth of waterways is great for exploring in a canoe or other small boat.
De Wieden is an important habitat for many bog-loving plants and wildlife. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to photograph any of the rarer species, like an otter or a dark bluet (a damselfly), so this not-so-rare hawker dragonfly will have to do for now.
Well, back to the scarf. For the smaller version I used two balls of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball Crazy, (100 g/420 m; 75% wool, 25% biodegradable nylon), in colourways Stone Washed and Kleiner Fuchs (Small Tortoiseshell).
The contrast between the two colourways is stronger in some places than in others, but the quiet shades of blue of the one always provide a great backdrop to the cheerful colours of the other. The alternating colours look fun in the I-cord edges, too.
I have updated the Seventh Heaven scarf pattern to include an addendum with instructions for this smaller version.
Those of you who have already purchased the pattern do not need to do so again. You will have received an e-mail by now and can download an updated version. As before, the proceeds of the pattern sales will go to Dutch nature conservation organisation Natuurmonumenten, for creating the circumstances that will hopefully lure the almost extinct large copper butterfly back to De Wieden.
Thank you for your support. And if you are going to knit a Seventh Heaven scarf, big or small, I wish you happy knitting!
Wat een mooie sjaals Marijke! En wat ben jij prachtig zo helemaal in je nopjes met sjaal èn omgeving!
Dank je, ik word er bijna verlegen van. Ik voel me inderdaad heel erg thuis op deze plek.
The smaller Seventh Heaven is just lovely – of course, I love it – I am also a blue person. I love the fact that you showed us how to style is so beautifully and I love that we got to see your smiling face. I enjoyed seeing the boggy land where peat extraction had been done in the past. When we were in Ireland a few years back, we did a tour where we taken to the boggs (I think that is what they were called). That was very educational for me. The lady that lead the tour said that she still uses the peat from time to time – I think for special occasions like Christmas – she said that her kids didn’t use the peat so the tradition will probably be lost with her generation.
A hawker dragonfly maybe a regular sighting to you – I doubt that I have seen one before – it’s beautiful – what a great photo you took. Thanks.
Hi Kathie, and it’s good to ‘see’ your face here, too (I can see it in my mind’s eye). There are some unusual (for me) colours in the scarf, like orange, but together with the blues I really like them. Peat hasn’t been used here for burning for decades. Losing traditions is often a pity, but in this case I think it’s a good thing. We need to be very careful of our ‘boggs’ (with double g? that’s interesting!). I think hawker dragonflies are called darners in the US, but I’m not sure you’ll have the same species.