The importance of swatching
Before you think I'm about to ramble on about the ugly ramifications of the g-word, don't worry. I'm talking about swatching in the sense of "testing" for your final project, not in the sense of what needle size/gauge you get.
See, after seeing Eunny's Anemoi Mittens I got it in my head to make myself a set (cuz obviously I don't have anything else to work on at the moment). And I got it in my head to make them in Koigu, since it's my absolute favorite yarn and I happen to have a ton of it (as you well know). I kept picturing doing one solid color and one variegated . . . so I went stash diving in my Koigu bins (yes there are 2) and came up with this gorgeous almost-solid chocolate brown, color 2420. Then came the hard part: what should the multi be? After much deliberation I came up with two possible contenders:
Choice 1: Color 624 with the chocolate
Choice 2: Color 722 (this shot of the chocolate is more accurate)
I was leaning pretty heavily towards choice 1, mainly because I just adore that multi color (I bought enough of it to make a whole sweater . . . ) My only concern about it was the dark brown spots that appear every so often, they are very close to the chocolate color and won't have enough contrast in the pattern, so it might look like mistakes in the standing. If I liked the lavender half as much as the peach, I would just have started the project in lavender because of this little issue, but I was really rooting for the peach. The only thing to do was swatch:
This is the stitch pattern that will appear on the palm of each mitten. I definitely want the brown to be the dominant background color, and I definitely love the way the peach looks against the brown background . . . BUT. Look at the upper right section of the peach color. The pattern gets completely lost. The lavender is much more even looking.
I'm leaning pretty heavily in one direction . . . what do you guys think?
12 Responses
Devorah
Go with the lavender. Loosing the pattern where the orange matches is going to make things look weird. The orange is much nicer though. Is there a similar Koigu colorway without the brown in it?
Gina
I like the peach, but I do think it gets lost, so go with the lavender.
Mrs. Hipp
The peach and chocolate combination works so prettily together — I guess this is why there are chocolate bits in the peach yarn. The lavender definitely looks more striking in the pattern, though. Lavender and chocolate is sort of a fun and unusual combination; you should go for it and maybe you’ll start a new trend!
sherry
Oh, definitely the lavender/peach. 2 of my fave colors together.
Marina
The peach goes so much better with the chocolate but for the sake of your sanity, lavender is the better choice.
Nancy J
The orange. The lavendar and brown just sit there, the orange sings.
gleek
the orange IS nice but this is fair isle and the pattern matters just as much. i’d go with the lavender.
britt
My gut said lavendar as soon as I saw the choices. It is just much more… vivid.
vanessa
i like the peach better with the brown, but it has too much of the same brown in that skein. could you buy another skein of peach without the brown? (insert devil horns)
Ruth
I love the lavender – and really, why go down a road you know you are going to be frustrated with?
Lola LB
I’d go with lavender . . .
rfg
December 20, 2006
Love the lavender and brown combo. Go for it.