HERMES 90cm SILK SCARF - TSITSIKA
by KERMIT OLIVER
There is no more PNW-y scarf than Tsitsika (subtitled "Les Indiens de la Cote Pacifique, Nord-Ouest Del' Amerique et du Canada"), and being a Pacific Northwest native, this scarf is so connected with my soul.
But first... I honestly don't know much about this design. It came out in 2002, several years before I started collecting, so by the time I found it the scarf booklet with the Story Behind was in the wind. I Googled "Tsitsika" and came up with a whole lotta nothing. The closest I got was Tsisika (no second T) River, valley and park in a small island outside of Vancouver BC. The park is home to a protected orca sanctuary founded in 1982. Within the sanctuary is an 'orca rubbing beach' where the whales swim to the shallows and rub themselves on the smooth rocks; this behavior is unique to the whales in the area, and there is an explore.org camera set up for the world's viewing pleasure (the same organization hosts my beloved Brooks Falls brown bear cams and the annual Fat Bear Week competition).
Everything in this design is quintessentially Pacific Northwest - the totem poles and masks and canoes; the water; and is that Mount Rainier in the background? There are so many animals drawn in such detail, all of them part of my childhood (even the damn moth that flew into my eye).
I was thrilled to find this in my early days of collecting, but those days were also quite lacking in knotting skills and I couldn't figure out what exactly to do with the scarf. Foolishly, I re-homed it. When I came to my senses a few years later I began a quest to re-acquire it. Thanks to a dear friend the exact colorway I'd had is now back home.
But first... I honestly don't know much about this design. It came out in 2002, several years before I started collecting, so by the time I found it the scarf booklet with the Story Behind was in the wind. I Googled "Tsitsika" and came up with a whole lotta nothing. The closest I got was Tsisika (no second T) River, valley and park in a small island outside of Vancouver BC. The park is home to a protected orca sanctuary founded in 1982. Within the sanctuary is an 'orca rubbing beach' where the whales swim to the shallows and rub themselves on the smooth rocks; this behavior is unique to the whales in the area, and there is an explore.org camera set up for the world's viewing pleasure (the same organization hosts my beloved Brooks Falls brown bear cams and the annual Fat Bear Week competition).
Everything in this design is quintessentially Pacific Northwest - the totem poles and masks and canoes; the water; and is that Mount Rainier in the background? There are so many animals drawn in such detail, all of them part of my childhood (even the damn moth that flew into my eye).
I was thrilled to find this in my early days of collecting, but those days were also quite lacking in knotting skills and I couldn't figure out what exactly to do with the scarf. Foolishly, I re-homed it. When I came to my senses a few years later I began a quest to re-acquire it. Thanks to a dear friend the exact colorway I'd had is now back home.
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