Thursday, February 27, 2020

3 things about needing color!

I don't know about you but even with the frigheningly mild winter we've been having here on the Connecticut shoreline, I am craving color and light.  Three thoughts on this.

1) Images that looked too bright and colorful last summer look fabulous this week! I was pulling some images for a presentation and revisited this Nash Island sheep.  This image that I'd rejected as not quite right when I shot it suddenly is my new favorite sheep photo (for the moment.). 

 2) Colorful projects are irresistible.  On a whim I knit a hat to include in a gift box for some tiny cousins. I fell in love with this Urth yarn when I popped into Knit New Haven. I wanted something bright and cheery and soft and self striping.With no color decisions needed.
Except as I started knitting,  it was screaming Christmas Elf to me. It's just a little hat and all the stripes were shades of red/green. So I ended up cutting out a large chunk of the yarn until the colors shifted to something that said Cheerful Kid in Spring.  This yarn is pretty fabulous, btw-- and the company plants a tree for every skein sold, which you gotta love.
This is the colorway of the yarn thought I thought I bought, as sort of modeled in the shop sample by my favorite stripe-enabler 8 year old. I may have grabbed the wrong colorway.  Or the hand dyeing went greener in my skein. It's all good!

And there is more than enough yarn for a definitely-not-christmas hat for Zoe . The pattern is On the C Train, it's one-one rib.  As a thrower it's usually an annoying  stitch for me to sustain. I've been knitting two handed on those coins all winter and realized I could whip through the ribbed hat if I held the yarn in my left hand and knit it combination style.  So it's been a fun little distraction and I'm on the combination ribbing team from here on in. 

 If the one-one ribbing looks good to you too here's another one , the Basic Chic Ribbed Beanie which I would have knit, had I recalled that I'd bought the pattern and had it waiting for me in my Library!  Advantage it's already graded for different size heads, while the pattern I knit had to be sized down. Not brain surgery but...sometimes it's nice to know someone else did the figuring for you, y'know?


 3) A fabulous shawl to work in whatever colors bring you some late winter joy is Marblehead.  I shot this for Berroco in the fall and fell for it. At the time I was thinking muted greys  -- it's a great design to play with color and still have something light and flowy thanks to the stitch. The yarn is UltraWool Fine , which is really lovely yarn  and will not break the bank. Now of course I want it in color, color, color.


Closer look at the stitch and our model's smile. Do you like seeing this model? She's Betsy,  a real person, who works as a yarn rep, a flight attendant....and coaches a cross-country track team. And sh'es a grandma!   I adored working with her. If you like seeing women with silver hair and some laugh lines modeling,  drop an email to Berroco and let them know you approve of seeing models such as Betsy. It surprised me to learn that  yarn companies and magazines and book publishers often hear blazingly nasty and mean comments about models , but rarely receive positive feedback. And, they take it to heart! 
Ok, done with my PSA.

What kind of color are you looking at this week ? And what form is it taking?

11 comments:

Bonny said...

I've been feeling the need for more color, too! I'm currently knitting a Hitchhiker in a Spun Right Round colorway called Nervous Breakdown. It's bright eye-searing yellow with speckles and areas of bright blue, pink, etc. It was a gift from my oldest son who raved about it so much that it was clear the knitted object should be for him. I decided to add a few stripes of the bright pink and blue as I near the end. It's been a joy to knit!

Sarah said...

I've been craving color, too. We haven't had much snow this winter, but it's been abnormally gloomy. I've been reaching for the socks I've knit out of bright/neon yarn more and more often lately!

MarmePurl said...

She shoots really great sheep shots!

Anonymous said...

I love that sheep!
Those hats are great too. I love to knit with bright colors, but I have very few people around me who would wear them. Luckily I'm not craving color as much as you do. We have summer all year long ;-)
Oh, and that model... she's so beautiful! I love seeing real women modeling.

AsKatKnits said...

That sheep! And, stripey hats are just so cheerful! :)

Carole said...

I've been knitting coins and I love playing with all those colors! Your photos and words today have brought some color into my life.

Sam said...

Not knitting but designing costumes for Hamden H.S. Theater Dept's musical, "Little Women". I see the world in color and love playing with new combinations. That is why I love this site - your use of color and sheep!

ccr in MA said...

I can always tell the yarn I bought in winter when I lived up north, versus the rest of the year: much more colorful! Now that I'm in Florida, that effect has lessened somewhat.

Jeannie Gray Knits said...

I love all those hats and Betsy's smile but I really, really love the sweater with the striped sleeves! What a great way to stashbust!(I never feel like stashbusting with hats gets me anywhere.) And you're right - Urth yarns are fabulous!

Kym said...

Oh, thank you for the color-filled post, Gale! It's been a mild winter here in Michigan, too, but still . . . I'm craving COLOR! (I knit the Basic Chic Ribbed Beanie for my son-in-law for Christmas, and he LOVES it. I'll definitely knit more of them -- and I'll definitely try combination knitting next time. I'm a thrower, generally, but I can knit 2-handed -- and do anytime I knit colorwork. I have no idea why I haven't made the switch already.) And Zoe's sleeves are THE BEST SLEEVES! XO

Vicki Knitorious said...

Zoe's sweater... I really need to make a bunch of those!! Love this post... so cheerful!