Dregs It Is

The Pantone Color of the Year 2015 is actually called "Marsala," but what the style overlords mean is not a festive bottle, but the red-brown dregs, the residue, the leavings.  And Marsala? As in Veal Marsala? Veal as in meat in captivity?

Appetizing or not, I'll take it, because it is the first color in years that I can actually wear without looking like an escapee from either the clown factory (I'm looking at you Radiant Orchid) or the ICU (that would be you, Emerald).

I just happen to have a sweater's worth of one of my favorite yarns: Quince & Co. Lark. And it is  the Malbec colorway.  Wine is wine, right? I think I can drink, um, I mean knit, to that.

Pantone Pandemonium

Pantone's 2014 color pick is Radiant Orchid.

I keep wanting to hate this color, but the more I look at it the more I like it, especially when I tell myself it is not really the color of candy eggs or the dreadful corsage orchids I remember from way back when. It remains to be seen whether or not the cosmetics mavens at Sephora are right: looks great with all skin tones.

Today I stoppped in at a small exhibition of 20th century art at the Boston Athaneum and was taken by this painting by Polly Thayer, "Shopping for Furs."

Those stripes look a lot like Radiant Orchid, don't they? And I love the jaded and exhausted look on this woman's face. That's how I look after I've been shopping for almost anything.

I predict we'll be seeing a lot of knitting and crocheting using this color as an accent with neutrals, like the palette of this painting.

Beach Plum Palette

More signals of a changing season. Beach plums ripening. My friend Deb made beach plum jam. I settled for playing with the palette.

Now I am craving both a piece of toast and a plum-colored sweater.

But there will be no cast-on Monday around here until the current sweater, socks, and shawl are finished.

While none of them are summery,none of them, alas, are plummy.

For those of you in the States, hope your Labor Day isn't too laborious. 

Autumnal Palette

Hydrangea & Coleus

Late August and the colors of early autumn are taking over in the garden and the marsh.

Not the searing yellows, reds, and oranges of October, but muted shades.

Amazing how these hydrangeas were blue, purple and pink earlier in the season.

Fun to create a palette. This one created from Kuler an Adobe app. A somewhat Cool Tool.

New color scheme for the blog?

Color Me Nervous KAL

That's not the name of the KAL, that's just me with some trepidation over stranded color work. It's really Meg Warren's KAL for Counting Crows mittens from What (Else) Would Madame Defarge Knit starting today in the WWMDFK ravelry group.
The pattern is so beautiful that I am motivated to move way out of my comfort zone in terms of technique if not of color. Seem to be working with a lot of gray and other muted colors lately.

The March Hare hand dyed
70% merino/30%silk
Raven's Wing & Sterling

Wish me luck with the strands. I would like to get through this without either cursing or crying, but those knitting deities, they love to laugh at poor mortals so I am not optimistic.

Three Bag WIP

Easy Tunisian crochet for catching up on TV. The most complicated bit is juggling three groups of yarn, but once they are in the plastic bags, it's not too bad. Ugly, but easy to deal with.

Stashbuster Three-Color Tunisian Blanket. Forty inches wide. Two feet in length, to date. Very airy, so it may not consume as much yarn as I had hoped, but I am pleased with the color combination.

See a variety of works in progress at Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday.

Fanfare FO

Fast, relaxing project for a busy week. A little too warm to wear in the hazy, humid weather, but that will change before too long.

Schultertuch/Dreieckstuch, you can find more information, pictures of other versions, and the link to the Facebook tutorial on ravelry.

Mine was worked with 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Sock in color way S279. The fiber softened considerably after a bath in Perwoll.

Visit Tami's Amis to see what other WIP's became FO's this week.

Color Story WIP

Choosing yarns for this project (Stash Buster Blanket in Three-Color Tunisian Crochet this time in a light, airy gauge) was easy, because so much of my stash yarn tells the same color story: teal, terra cotta, green.

Four yarns, nine colors, no new purchases:

Sundara Fingering Silky Merino in Beaded Trquoise, Adobe, Juniper over Sage

Rowan Kid Silk Haze in Trance, Amber, Pearl

Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Forest Green, Antique Rose

Posh Yarn Lucia in nameless pale robin's egg blue







After I chose the yarns I remembered the upholstered bench in the living room. Guess this is my story and I'm sticking to it.

If you want to learn the basics of Tunisian Crochet plus Stitch Diva's three color technique, I recommend this pattern, with it's very clear directions.

To see more Wonderful Wednesday WIP's visit Tami's Amis where Tami graciously hosts WIP Wednesdays and FO Fridays.

Hooking Air

Working on Schultertuch/Dreieckstuch with the aid of this handy little table of crochet terms in various languages.

Noro Silk Garden Sock
Color S279

Love the design, very simple, but looks beautifully complex when worked up.  Pattern itself is on Facebook and includes a chart and a detailed photo tutorial.



As a bonus, I learned some German words: Schulter for shoulder, Dreiecks for triangle, as well as some crochet terms. My favorite: Luftmasche. So much more fun to pronounce than "Chain Stitch" and it means "air stitch." How apt is that? 




Really enjoy the international aspect of knitting and crocheting. World harmony through sticks and strings!

Luck & Pluck

With any luck six skeins of this:

Plucky Sweater 90%Merino/10% Nylon
"Wooden Shoe"

Will become one of these:

Aislinn by Amy Herzog

Before the end of the summer.

Succumbed

to the colors. No surprise.

My favorite Little Golden Book was The Color Kittens. Especially this page:

They got so pouncy they knocked over the

buckets and all the colors ran out together.

There were all the colors in the world and

the color kittens had made them.

All the colors in the world. Eisaku Noro is a color kitten. Who knew?

And 64 years after it's publication, The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown is still in print. 

Noro No No

or Noro Yes Yes?

Cold spring. Noro cowl is just the thing. Would like it in a different colorway combo. Already have the yarn. And the needles. And the pattern print-out.

Terribly Tempting Taiyo
Cotton/Silk/Wool/Nylon
Colors 2 & 13

Don't need something else on the needles right now. 

We know how this one's gonna end, don't we? 

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesdays. Check out Tami's Amis blog for inspiration.

No shortage of WIP's around here. Took this one on vacation with me, but didn't knit a row. Picked it up again and progress is occurring. About halfway through now. About time--started this one in October.

Longshadows
 

I knit the scarf version of this design, which I eventually gave as a gift, but the yarn (Spirit Trail Fiberworks Nona) is so luscious that I wanted the larger wrap.

This time I am knitting from one end to the other instead of knitting from both ends to the middle and grafting. I don't want any finishing to stand in the way of getting this on my back. The pattern blocks out to a graceful line of leaves.

I love knitspot patterns. They are all very clearly written, beautifully charted, and the stitch patterns are always quite rhythmic and pleasurable to knit.  

Squoosh

Aptly named yarn base: Paradisus

Colorway:  Denali

May 2013 Knitting Club

Shaking

with excitement? Maybe that explains the slightly out of focus shot:

The Craft Cocktail of Yarn: Rowan Fine Art, sock yarn with merino(48%), kid mohair(20%), polyamide (25%), mulberry silk (10%).

Shade 302. Tawny.

The mohair was the clincher. 

Too many WIP's already, but will that stop me from casting on a pair of socks? Of course not, because they will be for me.

Cinderella

Slipper.

Coach.

Two things that caught my eye this week.

Inspiration for color and shape.

Inspiration

If anything can drive me to colorwork (which I have pretty much avoided) it is the designseeds blog.

When I see these images I often feel a kinesthetic impulse to reach for the needles and knit. Sweaters? Socks? Mittens? You name it. Go see for yourself.

As much of a mood-lifter as cute overload (most of the time.)

Need

What's need got to do with it? Need more yarn like I need another hole in my head, or another dust bunny under the bed, or another pine needle on the driveway.

Nona 

The March 2013 installment of the Spirit Trail Fiberworks Knitting Club, double option. (That would be greed, not need.)





Excuse me while I grab a bib to absorb the drool.


Nona, Heavy Laceweight
50% SW Merino, 25% Cashmere, 25% Bombyx Silk




100% gorgeous.



A chance, admittedly not a good chance, this will become a lacy summer sweater before it is time to wear it.

Design Age

The Waterworks Museum.

Engines and pumps from the 1880's & 1890's three stories tall.

Textures, shapes, colors to inspire.

Spiral Stair

Pump. Wrench.

Brownstone Motif

Just what they will inspire remains to be seen.

Color? Work!

The sound of the snowplow is heard in the land.  Again.


Desperately seeking spring. The only spring around here comes from the grocery store, five bucks a bunch. Yes, I know that spring doesn't arrive officially for another couple of days. Yes, I know I should be a good crafting sport and tell myself that the good news is there's still plenty of time to crochet thick cowls and knit woolly sweaters. Bah, humbug!
  

Inside

Outside