Imagine that you are confronted with a box full of luscious baby alpaca DK from The Alpaca Yarn Company in these beautiful colors.
Go on, close your eyes and think about opening the box and seeing a bag of each color, lined up in this sequence. Now, could you pick out just one shade to use? I have found that I am totally incapable of that. In fact, it would be hard for me to even eliminate one or two colors. So, What Would You Knit? (Think about it a little before you read on, let your imagination roam around for a while.)
If you were me, you would want a sweater, as opposed to an afghan or a shawl. I immediately went to Ravelry and searched for patterns tagged Stripes. I found this
and this
and this
all of which I like very much, but 2 or 3 colors seem to be enough for these designs. Then I remembered this
and this is the one. My colors will be more muted and my gauge will be different, and I’m not sure I’m going to knit it with 16 – 20″ of ease (after all, the designer has her own yarn line and is trying to sell as much as possible.) But I bought her pattern to understand how she is using color and it was totally worth it to be able to plan a sequence that will use colors evenly and attractively. Can’t wait to get started, but must finish Mrs Garter, a design I’ve been obsessed with since it was published last spring. The construction is fascinating and complicated and I’ve got to see it to completion. You might see it next week if my hands don’t give out!
A couple of notes:
Donna’s cowl class schedule has been updated. You can see the individual projects and their dates if you don’t want to commit to the whole series.
The Women’s Wine Dinner at Panevino has been rescheduled from Nov. 11 to Nov. 18. Be sure to let us know if you’re interested in joining us and get your $20 deposit (non-refundable) to us when you can. We have a copy of the drool-inducing menu at the store.
We’ve received beautiful new yarn in the past couple of weeks. I’ll show you just a couple this week:
MadelineTosh Merino Light arrived last week, in 15 gorgeous colors. One or two are gone already but most are still fabulously available:
And for those who are knitting for babies, we received a nice amount of fingering weight in both washable wool and Egyptian cotton. Here is Lanett, a new yarn for us, in soft, smooth superwash wool:
And bright new colors in cotton Mandarin Petite, for babies to wear in spring and summer. Aren’t they irresistible?
Okay, just one more! Fame Trend, a washable wool self-striping sock yarn, is also just what you want for all the Wingspans you’re going to be making for presents this year. Good colors, yes?
Ack, that’s enough, isn’t it? I met with Janelle of Design Revolution, our web designer, this week to talk about updating our look and modernizing how everything works. It’s been around 6 years since this blog started and that’s about 3 decades in tech-years, so it’s about time. I hope we’ll be integrated with Facebook and Pinterest, and make it easier for you to subscribe so that I can post more often and you won’t miss a thing. Sound good?
See you soon!
