THREE COLORS, ONE JOURNEY

On my second day in Ireland, I found three colors of wool in Galway that I couldn't leave behind.
 

A soft, cottage-like blue that reminded me of the water. A light sage green that felt like Ireland's green. The white:  a soft, creamy color I kept noticing along the Long Walk, where the buildings seemed to sit together in a collection of pale, gentle colors.
 

I didn't know exactly what I was going to make yet. I just knew I wanted those three colors.
 

THE MAKING TRAVELS WITH ME
 

Back at my bed and breakfast, I sat on the bed, wound the wool into a ball, put on Irish music, and started thinking about what it might become.
 

Eventually, I decided on a long, lacy scarf with tassels at the ends. Then the project came with me.
 

I crocheted throughout Ireland. The scarf grew as I traveled. One stitch at a time, alongside the roads, the landscapes, the places I wandered, and the quiet moments in between.
 

There was something I loved about not waiting until I came home to make it. The making became part of the journey itself.
 

GALWAY, CARRIED HOME
 

The blue became the water. The green became the landscape. The white became those soft, creamy buildings along the Long Walk.
 

Together, the colors felt like Ireland to me without trying to reproduce it exactly.
 

And I used every bit of the wool. There is nothing left. Every skein I bought in Galway became part of this one scarf, which means there isn't another one waiting to be made just like it.
 

There is only this one.
 

A scarf that began in Galway, traveled around Ireland with me, and grew along the way.
 

I still love that I can look at it and remember not only where I went, but where I was when I made it.
 

Made slowly and intentionally by hand, one stitch at a time.