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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Color Lovers

Today’s topic asks bloggers to talk about their love or confusion of color. It’s funny–only a few years ago, I would have said that I always, always gravitated toward rich jewel tones, especially blue, purple, and green, and rarely knit with anything else. A quick look through my Ravelry projects proves it:

I figured this trend would continue when I started designing last year. After all, I’m the one who gets to pick the colors I want to knit with, right? Oddly enough, though, I’ve found myself using more neutrals and dark, muted tones than before. Having to think about the styling and wearability of the piece changes things.

Here’s a snapshot of some of my designs that proves it:

Of course, I also have these, so maybe I haven’t gone as far from blue and green jewel tones as I could have, heh:

A look through my yarn cabinet also shows a weakness for impulse yarn purchases in blue, green, and purple:

My WIP basket

The current swatch pile

I’m going to continue attempting to branch out, color-wise, but I’m not sure how much luck I’ll have with all this yumminess calling to me. I think if I could only knit from Madelinetosh jewel-tones for the rest of my life, I’d be perfectly happy.

Luck ‘o the Irish

I bought some new yarn for a design yesterday.

That’s Madelinetosh Prairie in Thyme–my first purchase of Tosh laceweight. I am, of course, in love.

I’m also cranking away on my WIP sweater design:

Green just happens to be my favorite color. I’m one very happy (half) Irish girl :-)

WIP Wednesday

I’m working on a new sweater design! Top-down raglan with fun cable details:

The yarn is Araucania Toconao (totally had to look up that spelling, yeesh), which I purchased at Little Knits for an astonishing 78% off. I couldn’t NOT buy it. And guess what? They still have some: http://www.littleknits.com/products.php?cat=1123. You’re welcome. :-)

The yarn reminds me most of Madelinetosh Vintage (my fave). It’s light and very elastic, so cables show up fantastically well. I’m really having a blast knitting this sweater. More to come about it later!

Cables always inspire me to take artsy pictures….

More SEX… I’m trying to quit, I swear!

Another Stash Enrichment eXpedition! I was up in Monterey for a writer’s workshop this weekend and had some time to kill before it started… so I stopped into one of my favorite yarn shops, A Twisted Stitch. I wasn’t going to buy anything… but somehow these migrated into my hand:

That’s Alice Starmore’s phenomenal Aran Knitting (new and expanded edition) and two skeins of Arroyo, Malabrigo’s new sport-weight yarn, in Plomo.

A more accurate picture of the color.

I’m loving the book–the first section is a comprehensive history of the Aran islands and the sweaters that made them famous. I had many misconceptions about this style of knitting, but Ms. Starmore has set me straight! The next section is cable motifs, many of which are new to me. I got three design ideas just flipping through the book in the store, so I figured I’d better buy it, heh. The last section is gorgeous patterns, which I can admire even if I’ll never knit any of them.

At the earliest opportunity, I tried out one of the cable motifs in the Arroyo–isn’t it beautiful?

I’m thinking opera-length gloves, if I can manage to squeak a pair out of two skeins….

Stash Acquisitions, TML edition

I was trying to be good, but the space in my new yarn cabinet was crying out to me.

Madelinetosh TML in Victorian Gothic (dark)

Little Knits, one of my favorite online retailers, had Tosh Merino Light grab bags up last week (it looks like they’re sold out now, unfortunately). 30% off 5 skeins–I got to choose the general color theme, but they chose the skeins.

This appealed to me on so many levels. Cheaper Madelinetosh! Beautiful skeins I’d only seen online! The mystery of wondering which ones I’d get! The neutral grab bag was the only one left in stock when I went to order, so I snapped it up.

Faded Chinos – my fave of the bunch. Even though it looks nothing like faded chinos to me… more like golden wheat or something.

I LOVE three of the skeins I got: Faded Chinos and Victorian Gothic above, and Badlands:

Badlands – now THIS is a great name for this color.

The fourth skein I got is gorgeous, but just not my colors:

Parchment

I posted that one for trade on the Madelinetosh Ravelry group and got a response really quickly–so I’m swapping it for a skein of TML in Tart. I’ve heard so many rave reviews of that color but have never seen it in person–now I get to try it!

I’m still trying to trade the last skein, if anyone’s interested. It’s Terra Verte, dark version, and man is it dark–the skein looks black unless you view it in the right light, and then tiny bits of olive green are visible. The pictures below are pretty accurate (thank you Madelinetosh-loving new camera!):

Terra Verte

See the hint of green?

Overall, I’m really pleased with my purchase. I knew I might want to trade some of the skeins away, and thanks to the magic that is Ravelry, that process is fairly painless.

Aaaannndd…. I just noticed Little Knits has Tosh Sock grab bags up. Must… resist… siren call of Tosh….

Organized

(Warning: photo-heavy post)

I have been disgruntled with my yarn storage for a while now. When we moved into our current apartment, we found these cubes at Target and hung them on the wall:

There are several things to note in this photo. First, although the idea of having the yarn as decoration on the wall is a good one, everything ends up piled haphazardly in there. Second, the unattractive pieces of plastic stuck in the sides… which we found out pretty quickly were necessary to keep curious cats from jumping on the dresser and futzing with bits of yarn. And third… the top of the cubes pretty much serve as a ~~clutter repository~~ catch-all for random things.

And the rest of my yarny storage wasn’t much better. Here’s what my books/magazines/WIPs/needles/notions area looked like:

No, we don't live in a dorm room, but I don't blame you for thinking it.

My workspace, where I do the majority of my designing:

If you’re getting depressed by all this clutter, don’t worry! This post will have a happy ending, I promise.

A table covered with WIP patterns, swatches, etc:

So obviously I needed a new storage solution. Enter… (cue dramatic music)… IKEA!

The husband assembled it for me, assisted by the cats:

What? This is my hammer.

And here’s what my yarn storage looks like now!

All my yarn fits in the cabinet with room to spare (okay, not much room–but some). WIPs (including swatches and designs-in-progress) are in the middle bin, partial balls leftover from projects in the second bin, and yarn I’m hoping to trade or sell in the bottom bin. The cubes hold all my needles, notions, and books. Magazines have been moved to the bookcase in the living room, where they stand up better anyway.

The cabinet is a Billy bookcase from IKEA, with a Billy Olsbo half-glass door. All together (including the bins), it was just under $100. A steal, if you ask me.

Although… after sorting my yarn, I’m starting to think I need more sweater-quantities. So it may not end up being quite so cheap, heh.

My recent SEX

Er, Stash Enhancement eXpedition, that is, he he (always liked that acronym).

I was staying in Mountain View, CA for a few days, so after a quick Ravelry search, I set out to visit the most interesting-looking yarn store in the area: Green Planet Yarn! They’re in this fabulous building:

Picture shamelessly stolen from their website, as I forgot my camera…

They have a great selection, laid out in a very appealing way. My only quibble was that they hardly had any Madelinetosh, but the nice lady at the front desk told me they were expecting a big shipment in a few days.

I ended up buying a sweater’s-worth of scrumptious yarn, Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool (Rav link) in Plum. It’s for a new design that’s been simmering in my head for a while and is bursting to get out!

Plummy goodness

And can I just say how happy I am to have a camera that can take pictures AT NIGHT? I have a homemade lightbox, but my old point-and-shoot couldn’t handle night pictures anyway. It makes me happy :-)

The camera did have a little trouble with my other purchase, two skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino (Rav link) in Ravelry Red (appropriate, no?), but I’ve heard red yarns are notoriously tricky to photograph during the daytime, much less at night.

It's a little redder than this in person.

All in all, it was a very satisfying trip :-)

TILT: New Camera!

Things I love today: pictures taken with my brand-spankin-new DSLR camera!

Malabrigo Rios in Indecita

I sold off some yarn I wasn’t going to use, and hubby and I dug deep for the rest of the $. I am SO IN LOVE with this camera. We went for a walk in our neighborhood yesterday, and I literally stopped every ten seconds to take a new picture. I am now officially the most annoying person to take a walk with ever.

The camera body is a Canon Rebel T3. We could have spent $100-$200 more to get the version that’s a little newer–but the major difference seemed to be the number of megapixels, and for my purposes, 12.1 is quite enough, thank you very much.

Malabrigo Twist in Grapes

The 18-55mm lens that came with the camera is amazing, much better than I thought it was going to be, actually. We also ordered a 50mm f/1.8 lens, which is what I used to take these yarn pictures. It does an amazing short depth of field, as you can see:

Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in Betty Draper's Blues

Tosh Vintage in Betty Draper's Blues and Antler

Madelinetosh TML in Citrus

Okay, I may have gone a little nuts with the yarn photography…

We’re going to take the camera out to the beach on Thursday and do a photoshoot for a few of my new designs. I can’t wait to see what they look like!

Christmas Was Awesome

Hope everyone out there in blogland had a great Christmas!

I know I did. I made a Knit Picks wishlist for the first time this year, and boy did my family come through!

The yarn is the KP Wool of the Andes sampler in bright colors (I can’t wait to start in on colorwork hats and mittens, yay!). The needles are Harmony DPNs, which I’ve wanted for a while. Unfortunately, I got two sets of size #9 needles, but I already called Knit Picks and packaged up the duplicates to exchange for another size.

Then there are two stitch dictionaries–I keep checking these two books out from the library and am thrilled to have copies of my very own! My MIL also got me the adorable sweater keyring.

And last but not least, this amazing Namaste case for essential accessories:

The inside of the case. The divider is magnetic!

I also got one other yarny gift… but I went back and forth on whether to post it here. I decided to do it, but be forewarned:

THE PICTURES BELOW MAY CAUSE DISTRESS TO PEOPLE WHO LIKE YARN.

You sure you want to see this?

Really sure?

Okay… but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is what I saw when I looked in the gift bag she handed me (with no warning, I might add):

And when I dumped it out:

I think I may have hyperventilated a little bit (and not in the good way). Most of that yarn is CUT, people. Not to mention tangled beyond hope of sorting out. Someone took a bunch of yarn–mostly acrylic, but some wool–wound it into dozens of hanks, and then CUT THE STRANDS. Seriously, WTF?

SIL told me she found the bag at a yard sale for $1.00 and had to get it for me. I tried to be appreciative, but I was kind of terrified.

Any suggestions on what to do with this mess?