You may have noticed that I tend to favor accessories. It is what I like to knit so it is what I tend to design. I like projects where I can use and enjoy some beautiful yarn but have a chance of actually getting finished within a couple of months (weeks preferably). It is the way I avoid cast-on-itis. The new is always alluring and if a project takes too long I find myself pining for something different and exciting.
Which means that I have a lot of accessory projects favorite-ed. Consequently my “Pattern Highlights” section of Ravelry – you know, the part where they suggest things you might like based on the stuff you have made and favorite-ed – is chock full of tempting accessories.
And boy did a doozy pop up yesterday.
Look at that Cowl!
Chevzam is from the always fun Alexandra Tinsley. If you want to know what I mean by fun you should check out her blog Dull Roar and if you walk a little on the wild side you might want to check out her slightly less safe for work blog. These pictures are obviously hers, but I got permission to use them here.
Why?
Because as soon as I saw this piece my brain went into color overdrive. Her color palate for this cowl is flawless and I adore the use of colors that are so close in both hue and shade that the overlapping areas are boldly subtle. The clean lines of the pattern allow this subtly to work in an awesome way. To me, this presented a challenge. Could I pick out a color palate that would work this well. Now, I am not going to bust out a couple of new cowls to test it out. But I have the technology to fake it.
I started with Apricot.
First thing I did was pull up the Malabrigo page for their worsted weight yarn and start perusing. I admit, I initially thought I might have to look at another yarn manufacturer to come up with variants; but I obviously had no idea the sheer depth of their color offerings. (As an aside, I got this page from googling Malabrigo Worsted, this morning when I went to make a second palate I went to their site and found that I was working from an outdated page – here is the current one).
For this first try I was drawn to orange/apricot colors. I adore the yellows in Alex’s original but those colors make me look like the undead. I need more warmth to balance out my skin tone. For the contrast color the spring water seemed to be a scaled back teal that balanced well with the peach/apricots. The final color was the toughest and I ended up choosing one of Malabrigo’s subtle variegated colors. Apple has tones of peach and green in it and I think it could bring something really interesting to the party. note: Alex who is know-er of all things Malabrigo pointed out to me that this is Apple Cinnamon, oops.
Lets go crazy
This morning I got up and decided that to make this subject blog post worthy I would need a second set of choices. This is when I discovered, as mentioned above, that I was looking at an older list of Malabrigo colors. After going to the Malabrigo site and pulling up the Worsted page I was all “Where is the Apricot I was looking at?” Gone. But luckily, should I really want to do the first cowl, if you google for Malabrigo Apricot you can totally get your hands on it.
Back to the second set of colors. Purple. If you know me you had to see it coming. I love purple. Initially I had Periwinkle and Orchid, but they were too close in color, so I went with the darker Curazo. Honestly, either might work; this is a situation where I would need to have the skeins of yarn in my hands to compare. For the lightest color I thought that the Pink Frost would be fun, but the final color stumped me.
I considered another in the purple or pink range to keep it monochromatic but in the end the barely yellow won out as a nod towards the original color combo. I think the pop of the yellow running down the middle would be awesome.
I cannot decide which of these I would like better. Possibly the purple, but I am loving apricot right now. Who knows? Regardless it is a fun mental exercise with the end result of me wanting to buy lots of Malabrigo. Not that that is anything new.
So, what do you think of my choices? What colors would you use?
Tumped Duck 