Knitting in a certain yarn...

I got an email from Knit Picks recently, asking if I'd be interested in coming up with a design for a new yarn colorway. Free yarn is free yarn, so naturally, I said yes. The yarn arrived, and it was beautiful. I've converted all my photos to black and white, since the colorway has to stay secret until it's released. I immediately dived in; I had already come up with a design that I thought would work... but it didn't.

The tiny-cables stitch pattern I wanted to use was completely obscured by the color variations. So I frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. Finally, I came up with a design I liked; the cables and lace showed up well enough. But when it was about halfway done, it was clear that it was going to be enormous and not fit anyone with a normal-sized head (did I mention it was a hat?)... so I frogged it and started over. Again. I made some more adjustments to the cable pattern, to make it fit into a smaller stitch count, but I forgot to take into consideration that eight-stitch cables pull in much more than four-stitch cables do. Long story short, the hat I was designing to fit me ended up fitting my six-month-old niece almost perfectly.

 She's adorable, and she knows it.

 I like how it turned out, and may make another one, with the intention of having her model for me. But for now, I've abandoned that hat design. A friend of mine suggested that the stitch pattern would look nice in a cowl, which I thought was a great idea. Since a cowl wouldn't have any decreases or increases to worry about, I wouldn't have to figure out how to fit them into the design, as I had with the hat.

Three days later, I had a finished cowl, and almost no leftovers. My friends suggested 10 inches for the width. I was running out of yarn, so I only did 8 inches, which is fine for me, because I have a really short neck.

So I went through all that stress and ripping, to come up with a super-simple cable-and-lace cowl(and a hat idea for another day). And next time I'm asked to "come up with something" for a new yarn, I'll only agree if it's a solid color.

A little knitting...

I mentioned in my previous post that I had bought a little bit of luxury yarns on my "day off".  Here's what I bought:

 I know it doesn't look like much, but it's good yarn, and good yarn is expensive.  The tonal pink on the left is ShiBui Sock yarn, 50 grams.  I'm hoping it's enough for what I bought it for.  It's for test-knitting a dear friend's pattern.  I'm so excited and hopeful for her.  Her design is beautiful, and really deserves to get published. ♥  The teal in the middle is Lacey Lamb, extrafine lambswool laceweight, about 100 grams.  It is incredibly soft!  I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it; maybe a cowl, or a scarf.  I just couldn't resist buying it, even though I didn't have a plan in place for it yet.  The gray on the right is Classic Elite Yarns Silky Alpaca Lace.  It feels really decadent.  I started knitting with it last night:

It's another cowl, same design as the burgundy one that I recently started.  But I started with fewer stitches this time.  I think that will work better.  If it does, I'm going to carefully frog the burgundy one and start over.  Anyway, this gray is going to really pop against my brown hair, much more than the burgundy one will.  I'm still searching for a name for this design.  For now I'm calling it "Waltzing" because it was inspired by "The Waltz" scarf.  But I'm changing several little things, and I'm beginning to think it needs a totally separate name.  Right now I'm leaning toward "Frost", unless that name is taken.  I love this color; it reminds me of my mom's hair, which is light gray, almost white, and just as soft and silky as this lovely alpaca/silk yarn.

Because I just don't have enough projects on my needles...

And because I got a swap package yesterday.....
This is the beginning of a laceweight cowl. I'm using the basic stitch pattern from "The Waltz" scarf, since I enjoyed making that scarf so much. The yarn is Cascade Alpaca Lace, colorway "Red", although it's actually more of a tonal burgundy. It's lovely yarn, and I just had to start knitting with it right away. I also got some of the new Knit Picks Capra (merino/cashmere) in the swap package, so I'm trying to decide what I want to make with it too. My friend Dawn really spoiled me!