A Design Idea and the Right Yarn
I’ve been dreaming of designing a top-down colorwork short-sleeved sweater, filling my Pinterest boards with images and colors that inspire me. In the spring, I found all the colors I was looking for in a certain yarn line, only to discover that the yarn was spun too tightly for colorwork and that I didn’t like how it looked or felt for this design.
Finally I was introduced to the perfect yarn, Sunday Knits yarn by Carol Sunday. I’m using her 3-ply yarn, with colors from three different fiber blends, Eden (100% Merino), Angelic (75% Merino, 25% Angora) and Nirvana (92% Merino, 8% Cashmere). The yarn has a lovely hand, is available in over 60 colors, and is reasonably priced. All of the fiber blends work well together.
A Swatch and What it Taught Me
I wanted to work a swatch to find out how the yarn behaves and to see how the colors would look together.
The first thing that I learned is that Sunday Knits yarn is my new favorite for colorwork! Look how nicely the fabric lies, even before the fabric was soaked and blocked.
Next I learned that if I initially don’t like a color, such as the Rose colorway in the swatch above, knitting lots of it will never make me miraculously like it. Why did I think that knitting more of that pale pinky-red would make me like it more? (Just to clarify, there’s nothing wrong with the color, I just wasn’t happy with the way it looked with the other colors.)
Conversely, if I do like a color, such as Bronze, which is the cast-on and is immediately below the blue in the swatch above, even in little bits it makes me happy!
I also was reminded that I really don’t like white in a piece like this with lots of different colors – the contrast is too jarring. I will be using Sand as the light background color in this pattern.
And finally, basic algebra is still useful!
I can’t wait to work more on this sweater! I will keep you posted!
Two Special Surprises This Week
My friend Meg sent me custom-made knit equals joy ribbon. How special was that?!? I have some fantastic friends!
A friend at work had two extra yarn bowls (!) and she gave one to me! It’s so pretty!
I’m so thankful for the kindness of others! I wish you all a wonderful week, and may you find or share those special moments of kindness!