New Loreley Scarf Kit Colorways at Sandra Singh!
I have some exciting news! Sandra Singh (http://www.sandrasingh.com/) is now carrying my Loreley Scarf kits! I came up with three new colorways for her to offer exclusively to her customers, and I'm rather excited about them.
In contrast to the original three colorways, for this set I decided to do tone-on-tone kits. The three kits I came up with are:
Red Letter Day
Pretty in Pink
Green with Envy
I'm particularly in love with the Pretty in Pink colorway (I know, big surprise). There are only 3 kits of each color available, and one has sold already, so if you're interested in grabbing one, head on over to the kit page! And while you're over there check out all her other wonderful products, of course.
Thanks Sandra, as always it's a pleasure working with you!
New pattern and kits: The Loreley Scarf!
I'm so so happy with how this little scarf design came out!
The idea was to make a scarf that would shade colors of Koigu into each other, to seamless go from one color through a bunch of other colors in a way that made them look like the fade into and out of eachother magically. I knew that I wanted a simple stitch pattern that wouldn't detract from the colors, but knitting an all-garter-stitch scarf is pretty boring, so I threw in some eyelets to keep your interest as you knit. The eyelets ended up being my favorite part of the design! The different texture of those rows brings out the subtle color changes in a different way than the garter stitch does, so it gives the whole piece much more depth of color.
You can see the full color progression here:
I've done lots of projects in Koigu but never one where the colors changed this drastically. I'm still amazed at how great they look fading into and out of each other! Which probably explains why I can't seem to stop admiring the different colors . . .
And in this one, you can really see the texture of the garter stitch and the eyelets:
The pattern is available to purchase for $4.00, and will be delivered immediately as a PDF download. You can purchase it here!
Speaking of colors, as you know that's my favorite thing about Koigu. I decided to offer up some kits for this scarf, and had lots of fun coming up with colorways!
I'm offering limited-edition kits for $39 plus shipping of $5.50. I didn't even write down the colors I used here, so I can't make any more of these even if I want to! You're guaranteed to have a very unique scarf if you choose one of these =)
Here are the colorways I came up with so far:
The first one is called Dark and it's the colorway I knit for the project photos:
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I love the way the finished scarf came out and I know I'll get lot of use out of this colorway, as it pretty much goes with everything!
For the next colorway, I wanted to go exactly the opposite and came up with the Light kit:
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In this one I particularly love all the speckle-y colors, they're more rare than the stripe-y colors of Koigu so I tend to fall hard for them when I find them as they're so unique! This colorway would probably go with pretty much everything too, and would make a more spring-like finished scarf.
Finally I wanted to go a bit crazy and use some of Koigu's really bright, wild colors, so I put together a Bright colorway:
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This one makes me think of Mexico and would be wonderful worn with a tame outfit. Like many New Yorkers I often end up in head-to-toe black with just a small bit of color from an accessory, so this scarf would be perfect!
Winding all the yarn up for these kits took way longer than I expected it to take, let me tell you. I used my kitchen scale to weigh each skein and then split each one up into 3 equal sections, building a little pile of wound up balls as I worked. I think from start to finish it took me over an hour to do 6 kits!
Here's a crappy iPhone shot of the process (and my messy table in the background):
I'm thinking of doing a little tutorial on how to do this, would anyone be interested in that?
What do you think these are?
One is getting finished up:
And one is just getting started:
Any idea?
The first person to correctly guess the project over on the Facebook wall post wins a free copy of the pattern when it's released!
Daily Photo: Koigu, you're still my #1 love.
This photo's certainly over-exposed but I think it looks kind of cool that way so I'm using it! Hope you don't mind =)
On Friday night the idea for this design sprung into my head fully-formed. That rarely happens, believe me . . . most of my designs take tons of swatching, sketching and trial and error before they're finished conceptually. But every once in a while something like this happens, and those designs have generally turned out to be the most successful and popular (see the Runner's Watchcap and the Soho wrap for examples!). So I had to cast on ASAP. It still took me a while to settle on a color palette, and in truth I actually made 3 palettes and set them aside for later (more on that when I publish this), but after weighing and winding up the yarn, I was off like a rocket!
What you see above is the almost-completed scarf, all of which was knit over the last 2 days. And my hands don't even hurt!
Koigu in garter stitch is such a wonder . . . I love how the bumps accentuate the color changes and how no section is at all like any other section! Of course I'm maximizing that effect by shading colors in an out of eachother, which is one of my favorite techniques to use with Koigu. If you look closely at the photo above you can see that the colors fade into eachother seamlessly. So so pretty, I can't get enough. I can already tell that I won't be satiated by making just the one sample scarf for photography, I'm going to end up with at least two of these scarves for myself for sure . . .
Falling in love with a design all over again
As I mentioned a few days ago, I took advantage of Sunday's perfectly overcast weather to take some project photos outdoors. If you ever have trouble photographing your handknits (or anything really!), this is the secret that no one's shared with you: overcast days make for the best lighting!
The photo above was taken in seconds with absolutely no post-processing whatsoever (well other than cropping, but that hardly counts!). I can hardly believe it myself! The colors! The even lighting! The detail! The old photos of my Tramonto shawl were taken 6 years ago with a toy point-and-shoot so this design definitely deserved some new photography to go with it.
What I didn't expect, however, was to fall in love with this shawl all over again! But it totally happened: I keep coming back to look at the photos, examine the colors, look at the lace pattern . . . I'm mesmerized! In a way it makes sense because I'm so far removed from the actual creation of this now that it's become fresh and new in my eyes again . . . but on the other hand I've been looking at this thing for years and years, so the idea that it could look new to me is kind of hysterical.
Then I go back and look at the picture again and get all dazzled again:
I'm sure part of the draw is all those colors of Koigu . . . I used 22 skeins of Koigu in all for this design, and somehow I didn't get sick of the yarn! In fact I probably got even more addicted to Koigu while in the process of knitting this monster. And we all know I'm nowhere near done with my Koigu love affair!
If you're interested in the pattern for this shawl, it's available here or on Ravelry for $5.00. Oh and if you pass me on the streets of downtown Manhattan and I'm sweating under this shawl, be sure to say hi!
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PS - Inspiration for the shawl-on-a-bench shot comes from Fuzzy Noodle Knits, who knit a truly stunning version of Tramonto back in 2006. Go check it out and tell her how gorgeous it is!
