String of Blooms Scarf

Yarn:
Hand-painted 100% pima cotton picked up from Oakland TKGA 2006. This one has made several appearances on my blog: here, here and here.
The second yarn is also a 100% pima cotton I picked up from michaels, a dusty red. I had used it to make this.

Needles:
DPNs - the size of your choice

Abbreviations:
C1: color 1
C2: color 2
DPN: double pointed needle

Skill required: i-cord

Knitty's Nagano Sakura has been haunting my knit-thoughts over the years. That scarf is as much art as it is a wearable. I just couldn't get to make it though. I finally figured why: it is a felted scarf but useless as warm-wear. Perfect for Summer in its styling but not so much in its construction. String of Blooms solves these issues with a new method of creating attached i-cords instead of felting a stockinette strip.

Cast on 3 stitches of C1 and knit about 5 inches of i-cord. On a different dpn, cast on 3 stitches with C2 and knit 8 inches of i-cord. Slip the live stitches of this second i-cord on the same needle as the C1 i-cord alongside, with the same orientation.
Row 1: twist the 2 yarns, knit first 3 stitches continuing in i-cord with first yarn; knit next 3 stitches with second yarn, making sure you tug at the twist so there is no slack.
Continue knitting this row until required length (about 50 inches)

For a tutorial on this method of making conjoined i-cord, read further here.

Now slip the first 3 to a different dpn and knit the 2 i-cords separately for another 5-10 inches and bind off.

Knit a few flowers and attach. I'll write a separate post on different styles of making knitted flowers.