cables

How does the saying go? I think it’s “April showers bring May flowers” and boy are we getting showers over here in my neck of the North East woods. I feel as if winter’s still here. Dark, gloomy, gray, very wet days have become all too frequent. Despite what the weather’s like, I’ve decided to enjoy Spring in my choice of colours for the projects I’m working on this week. I’ve decided to experiment with colour combos and brighten up my dreary days with vibrant colour!

I wasn’t sure if this peach and magenta combo on my Duotone Cowl (original image below) was going to work.

source: original design and colour combo from Orange Flower Yarn (on Ravelry)

I laid them out together one day, looked at them for another 48 hours then decided to take the plunge. So far so good … I think I like it. I’m hoping the magenta doesn’t overpower the peach once I get to the second set of repeats where the magenta would be the dominant colour. This project is another simple one with great teaching opportunities. In addition to being a colour experiment, I needed to learn crochet provisional cast on since the cowl will be eventually joined using kitchener stitch. If I didn’t get enough of seaming that way with my first mitten, ha … this project is going to make an expert out of me. The other technique is making jogless stripes … honestly, it looks messy to me but I was assured that the stitches would smooth out once the project is done and blocked. The miles of stockinette makes it perfect for what my friend Elisa calls … Knitflixing (aka watching Netflix while knitting).

The second project is more of a mental experiment in colour. I would NEVER pick that shocking green colour as an option for a solid blanket but my little cousin did. Shown above is the yarn/colour he chose to make the Sutter Mill Cable Throw that he made me promise to make him after he saw my 2014 Mood blanket. Strangely enough, although the colour is so startlingly bright to me, I have to admit that it’s kinda cheery to work with on those grey days and I can’t wait to see the cables forming. Here’s the original pattern — one of the four blankets I plan to make this year:

source: LionBrand Studio

I’m making this all together instead of doing 5 stripes then seaming. It might take a little longer this way but I don’t mind. I know it will also get heavier the larger it gets but I’ll just have to lay it down while I work on it. There was NO WAY I was going to do the five strips individually … NO WAY!!! 😀 I just have to pay attention to where I make the cable crosses since three are to the right and two are to the left.

So? What are you working on? Anything fun, bright or using a Spring palette? Any new techniques? What’s your favourite jogless stripes method? Talk to me in the comments! 😀

Everyone who knows me knows that I’ve always made space in my stash for the dreaded acrylic yarn. Making space for acrylic is a sometimes hot button topic in the crafty world primarily because of the unnatural nature of acrylic and how it’s produced. But one of the, if not the greatest selling points of using acrylic, is wash-ability aka the “many non crafters don’t care to hand wash so let’s use acrylic” reason. Then there’s the price point. Need I say more? Added to those, it’s come a long way and is now softer than your grammy’s old Red Heart, and there’s more variety than ever before. So what’s the problem?

In my earlier, not so discriminating days as a knitter, the only thing I thought of was colour. There was absolutely no concept of fiber, how to match particular weights with projects, none ah dat! All I lived for in the early days was … “ooooooo pretty!!” Needless to say, I have a cruise ship worth of acrylic, and no tan lines or hot pool boy to show for it! 😀

Recently, I was commissioned to make some boot cuffs. I picked a lovely pattern, then I got started. By the time I got to the the second cable repeat, I smelled gasoline. So much so, while I talking to my mom on the phone, she suggested that I called the super of my building to have him investigate. Yes, that’s how much it smelled. It’s a good thing I didn’t. I kept smelling that gasoline smell, then my hands started to itch. Then my face, then inside my mouth. I got up to wash my hands then realised that it was the yarn that smelled like gasoline. I’d actually thought it was the heating radiator in my apt. My mom thought I should toss that suckah asap, but nooooooooooooooo, I had to finish the project because I didn’t have yarn in the requested colour other than for this single skein. So I plugged on, finished the project then ditched the rest of the yarn. The boot cuffs turned out beautifully but I had to ask myself — when is enough, enough? I don’t consider myself a yarn snob and I do believe that acrylic has it’s place, but honestly, after all that drama, I really just feel like sticking to natural fibers only or at the very least, acrylic blended with natural fiber. If I do that, what do I do with the acrylic I have? What do I do with the acrylic I have and like?

What’s your take? Do you use acrylic yarn? Do you think that the rest of the cruise ship load is worth keeping?

While you answer me, here’s a picture of the boot cuffs. They turned out really nice despite me almost ripping my skin off from the itching. 😀