Color and Contrast

Anxious to dig in to a new sweater project, I poured over pattern books this week-

The criteria: overall colorwork, small motif, not too angular, many colors, kind of wild and crazy. So many beautiful options. But nothing really clicked. Well, except maybe Hedgerow. That’s the kind of effect I’m going for. But I’m feeling a little too lazy to follow a pattern with multiple charts. ha!

I’ve had these beautiful skeins of Biches et Buches petite lambswool hanging out in the stash for a long time- picked up on a whim years ago at Tolt Yarn and Wool in Carnation, which I’m not sure is still around(?)

Was really taken with the colors, but have found that they are kind of hard to use all together, because I didn’t pick them out with an eye for balancing the light/dark shades.

In the intervening years, I’ve spun up a small collection of yarns of hopefully compatible weight to round out the color palette. But I still want to use all those strong shades.

After a while all that pattern surfing and weighing of options just seemed too much and I wanted to get on with it. So I cast on for a cowl and decided to just play it by ear, making color choices as I went.

I figure, I need to do a swatch anyway, right? This way I can just try out the yarn, see what kind of gauge I’m getting, how the fabric feels, and what kinds of crazy color combos I can get away with. 🙂

It’s been a lot of fun.

Sometimes the way the colors play against each other in the pattern (my go-to circular pattern, of course!) surprises me. While I was knitting it, I wasn’t sure I liked how the green and orange was working out, but now I think it’s one of my favorite bits, especially with the dark purple setting it off.

Anyway, I’m having fun with this for now, and hopefully what I learn from this little color and contrast exercise will serve me well when it comes to knitting the sweater (vest? cardigan?) of the same type.

I love the feel of stranded colorwork fabric, especially in this smaller gauge. Light and lofty but still warm and substantial.

Out in the pasture, I am making progress with shearing little by little. Fiona is now nekkid, and Daphne is part way there. But rainy weather today means I probably won’t make any more headway this weekend.

Fiona was kind of a bear to shear, and seemed pretty badly felted as I was working through it, but I was heartened to see that she’s developed some crimp where there was little previously, and the “scritch factor” seems to have diminished.

Daphne’s wool doesn’t seem to be quite as long this year, but has great color and looks more crimpy as well.

I’m excited to get the rest off of her- maybe later this week (if I can get ahold of the wily girl).