To Knit is Joy

Since I moved my yarn out of the closet, some really interesting things have happened.  I am thinking about my stashed yarns more and they just excite me.  I was thinking about a particular yarn when I went to sleep last night and I awoke this morning and just felt so energized.  I was knitting before coffee and breakfast.  Knitting beats the morning news every single time.

I worked on the sweater yesterday.  My hands simply took me there and there was not a lot I could do to stop it.  I really love this small square pattern I am working.  It is just so right for this sweater.  Part of what makes it so good is that the little squares are three stitches and four rows of alternating knits and purls.  The sleeve sections are six bocks long, so I know exactly how much knitting is left.  It feels just like when I knit a seven row stripe sock. It is the most exciting thing to be able to go full tilt on a project. And I am pretty sure that I am going to keep working on it till the sweater is done.

 

  

It's starting to look like a whole sweater now.  It's going to be a very good day.

Faye asked about colours.  For this sweater, the driving force was stash.  It was what I had left from my Hun sweater.  

I loved the colours of the original Hun and sort of followed the lights and darks of that. 

I spent a lot of time choosing but River City Yarns (where I was working and where I most often shopped) had only a very few colours left of the Lett Lopi so I picked from what they had in stock.  They were very similar colours to the yarns I used for Brian's vest, though I used Cascade 220 for that.  

You can see, it isn't a very adventurous palette.  I wanted very soft colours, heathered and of the earth.  Forest colours, because Brian was that sort of man. 

I do use a trick that a friend from the yarn store used when she was choosing colours.  If you look in a mirror with all the colours held together, you will know if they are right. 

The other well known trick is to take a picture and then take all the colour out of it.  You can easily see which ones are not quite right if you do that.  If it is all too much the same grey, try different shades of the same colour till each colour is defined but matches in the greyed picture.

My last trick is a personal one. Most colours work together.  I always look to nature.  There are ten thousand greens and they all look right in nature. If it makes you feel good, go with it.