Colour Combos

Something I find interesting about striped knits (or in this case, crochet) is how quickly the dynamic changes when you add a new colour. 

 

I absolutely love these four stripes together, don't you? The effect is a bit 1970s office drab, but so calming. I also loved the first two colours (the green looks wrong here, but you know what I mean I hope)...

And the next two colours...

Even though those two separate combos are completely different moods. Summer forest and winter frost.

I'm kind of sorry to think of adding the next two stripes...

But I'll do it, and when I finish with the rest of them I'll miss the calm of the first four but love the warmth and controlled chaos of the ten-stripe collection I settled on.

 

This is going to be my second-ever crochet blanket and I was so determined not to mess up like I did with the first one, I started that first green stripe easily ten times, including the time I ripped back when I'd gotten as far as four stripes because I had to accept it wasn't going to be wide enough.

And when I did get it wide enough, I started weighing the yarn before and after each stripe (which I am making wider this time to reduce the amount of ends-running-in I had to do last time) to be sure there wouldn't be any yarn shortages at the end.

Thank goodness too, because I only have one ball of this colour!

And I will need at least an extra ten grams of it. 

I was very lucky in that Wool Warehouse still had some stock with the same dye lot. But it's hard to justify spending ten dollars on shipping for four dollars of yarn, so I might've accidentally bought yarn for yet another blanket. This is going to be my Year of the Blanket, mark my words! Though I might do a different stitch for that one. We'll see.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with sunshine and no yarn shortages! And lots of colours you like together.

 

 

The complete blanket

Guys, it's true. The blanket I thought would take a few weeks (try: twelve) is DONE.

Isn't it a great match for the drapes in the room where it'll live?

And that border - what a dream! 

Okay... maybe it's not *perfect*. 

Like, really not. 

Though who's to say it's not just beckoning a passerby to unfurl it, the better to curl up and cosy? 

I swear I added extra ease on the corners, but there's only so much you can do when the tension on the sides is irregular, owing to the person crocheting it having no clue what they were doing. 

And it's not like curly corners affect function, right? Ditto the wavy belling inside the borders, caused by the same problem...

 

I had to pinch a bit and skip openings when I was setting up the border, which I did like three times trying to get it as flat as possible.

Still, I'm happy with it. It's a first try at both blanket and crochet, and it's warm when it's on me and pretty when it's folded up.

In the end it came out a bit over three feet wide and a bit over four and a half feet long, which is the perfect length for tucking under on a chilly evening to crochet.

Except... now I'm out of something to crochet. 

Next!

Just kidding. I will of course be knitting socks while under the blanket, and repairing socks, and weaving that scarf I still haven't finished after five years.

(but maybe not till I've finished the second blanket?)

Hope you've got a cheery warm weekend lined up even if it means staying indoors to make it happen, or something else that's fun. You deserve it, amiright? And thanks as always for spending a bit of your time with me. See you next Saturday with anybody's guess for a project to share! 

 

Gifting for your future self

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Recently I was looking through old knitting gear bags for a tape measure and found this adorable collection I must have assembled for a little trip I don't even remember now. And I thought, how sweet of past me to have put this together for future me!

The tape measure was curled up neatly inside a pill container, and a second pill container was loaded up with colourful stitch markers. 

A plain square tin had plain stitch markers. I wonder what project I was working on? A lace shawl? Been a while since I've done that, but I know this isn't the only time I've included a small Swiss Army knife for its all-important scissors. 

I drift in and out of an obsession with setting up the most compact tool set possible, but here I was clearly looking to maintain the usefulness of older items (the first few inches of the tape measure's markings are worn with use) or prolong the usefulness of discardable ones (the tiny tin which once contained mints.)

This was a fun find! 

Now to pay it forward by making sure that present me gives future me a totally organized yarn and tool stash, so I can be orderly and serene when colour matching a sweater that needed invisible mending, with yarn across three different storage areas. Unlike last night, ahem. 

Too ambitious? I think so too.

Hope you have a lovely weekend lined up, and thank you for spending this little bit of it with me!

 

In love with Tana Lawn

Recently I treated myself to a little parcel of Tana Lawn cotton from Liberty of London...

I didn't shop at the linked site but rather from Studio 39 Fabrics here in Canada, which stocks a swoony variety of Tana Lawn patterns (spoiler: one of these four is not Tana Lawn, just a print I absolutely loved for my evil scheme, detailed below.)

And can we also take a moment to admire the bonus gift of a bit of Tana Lawn Betsy tied into the parcel?

 

If you don't know this fabric, it's cotton in an incredibly thin and soft weave, patterned with the most colourful designs. I first stumbled across it at a jumble sale during the year I lived in England, where I picked up a skirt in what I now know is the Thorpe Hill pattern. It had to have dated back to the seventies, in an unflattering below-the-knee length which I shortened a few inches and wore long past the lining getting holes and into the fabric itself getting a bit weak. I mean, for such a fine textile, it is hard wearing!

But because it's so thin, it's also cool to wear even at high temperatures. At another jumble sale a while later I found a bright pink floral blouse in it and omigosh. So soft and comfortable no matter how hot the day.

I thought of this fabric during one of the cold snaps last month, when I started to dread the prospect of very hot weather when, rather than putting on another sweater, I will be stuck back in a rotation of cheap T shirts, sometimes two or three a day if I get out for a few walks. Le Sigh. Clothes are so much more interesting when you can layer them and combine fabrics, right? But in high summer, the only way to survive is in loose-fitting breatheable bag.

Evil Scheme Reveal: scarves made from Tana Lawn to tuck into my roster of cotton V neck Ts. Not hot, but outfit-making, and sun-protecting.

Ready for runway time?

Meet Joanna Louise...

And here is Wiltshire...   

Plus the piece of resistance, a reunion with Thorpe Hill!!! 

I was so excited to see this fabric and recognize my beloved skirt (which was a brown colourway, but no matter.) Of course I had to have it.

Bear in mind, most of these prints are available in a range of colourways, just like our beloved winter woolly yarns. 

B L I S S  

Before I finished my shopping I had also fallen hard for this Moonflower print designed by Kimberley Kight. (seriously, you should click on the link and then click on her name for the rest of the collection because it is a FEAST.)

How cute will this be on a not so desperately hot day with creamy linen floaty pants and a black linen top? Or the reverse. I have a lot of cream or black linen, it turns out. 

Plus you know that pink selvedge is going straight onto some other project as a showpiece. It's too awesome to be wasted inside a seam, don't you think? 

The Moonflower fabric is very affordable but the Tana Lawn... not so much. I could only spring for half a meter of each of that, which should be enough for an infinity scarf I can throw on and walk out with. Or a bandana plus maybe a little knit accessory pouch? This is tomorrow's problem. For now, let's just luxuriate in a couple more pretty fabric pix:

Today of course is VERY cold and tomorrow will be more so, which means I will not be sporting any of the cute outfits I am now excited to wear in July. Instead I am hunkered down inside to work on my current writing project, enjoying the sun pouring in through the windows, and grateful I finally finished fixing my super warm semi-felted sweater.

Really hope you have a lovely couple of days lined up, or at least some lovely moments to get you through if not. Thanks again for dropping by and I'll see you next Saturday!