The Knitting Madonna: Visit of the Angel - from the right wing panel of the Buxtehude, Germany Altar by
Meister Bertram of Minden, Germany, 1400-10

Bertram has the golden haired middle-easterner peacefully working with her dpns while her son studies Hebrew. His attention has been stolen by some visiting angles who, in a macabre foreshadowing, are carrying an execution cross.

It’s one of the two possibilities for the 1st depiction of someone knitting and shows that by the 14th/15th century (about 400 years after Egypt started it all) Italy and Germany were finally knitting.

Here’s an interpretive scarf:

Red & yellow side: Mary’s blouse
My best recreation of the sleeve pattern. The edges of the scarf reflect the neckline and cuff - a darker burgundy trim with solid yellow and random reds.

Green side: Chapel windows in colors of Mary’s draped skirt. The round top-of-the-window design is at one edge of the scarf. The shapes of the two halves of the window bottom create long stripes on the rest of that side. The stripes are also supposed to capture the bitonal feel of the triangle-square pattern in the ceiling of the chapel.

On the opposite edge of the green side (from the round design) there was supposed to be an embroidered berry plant similar to the two near the studying Jesus. But, never got around to it.

Noted:
When purling, keep both colors continental-
both colors on top of index finger,
yellow (color of design) closer to hand, under middle finger and over ring finger,
red (background) closer to finger tip, over middle finger, under ring finger,
then wrapped around little finger together (as a last step rather than how you would normally wrap your pinky up first).