Color Frenzy

In the past I gravitated toward single-skein projects and avoided colorwork because I thought it was too complicated.  The idea of tangled yarn and weaving in ends made me dizzy.  I eventually learned to suck it up and deal with multiple colors in a single project, but I've only done it sparingly.  Like when a project just jumped out and made me knit it.

But lately colorwork is all I want to do!  I find myself searching Ravelry for colorwork projects and pairing up my yarn to find the right color combinations.  I'm going to completely blame this on my knit crush Alex Tinsley for these three colorful hat patterns!  Also the Condurat by Sarah Burghardt is partially to blame as well...

Last night I finished a Phoncible hat in two contrasting skeins of Noro Silk Garden.  Each skein changes color on its own, but when stranded and striped together, you get a sort of mystery hat!  There's no way to predict how it will come out until it is done, which meant I had to knit this hat three times.  I would get almost done and realize I didn't like the way the colors were pairing, rip it out, then rewind the yarn so that I could work from the opposite end to get a different color variation.  Luckily watching the colors change is a lot of fun so I didn't mind all the ripping and re-knitting.

 

Sometimes I just want a little hint of contrast, like the wonderful running stitch in Wale and Course!  I knit this in Madelinetosh Sport in the colorway French Grey with a hint of Malabrigo Worsted in Frank Ochre.

Or a contrast brim like in A Hat For Eudora.  No one knows that contrast is even there while you are wearing the hat, but it's such a cute touch.  This one uses Madelinetosh Vintage in the colorway Cove and the contrast brim is done in Malabrigo Rios Cocoa.

And who doesn't love stripes?  Or cowls?  Or... gasp!  A striped cowl!  I love this cowl.  It's not a real pattern, or anything fancy.  I just provisionally cast on 100 stitches, striped up two gorgeous colors of Madelinetosh tosh dk in Afternoon and Fawn, and then kitchener-ed the whole thing off.  It's fun!

Okay, so I haven't done any real colorwork like intarsia or fair isle, but whatever.  It's a step for me anyway.

And that's all from me for now!  I've made it to the 270 hexipuff mark, so I might make a hexipuff update post soon.  I've also moved and as such I have a completely new yarn space.  Maybe I'll sneak in a yarn post as well...  See you next time!  :)

Hexipuff Stash

I've been neglecting my hexipuff-filled beekeeper's quilt with all my cowls and hats lately, but I did make it to 250 puffs today!  To celebrate, I thought I'd share my sock yarn stash with you today: 

This is my hexipuff bag.  I tote this giant thing to Knit Night and work even if I'm not knitting hexipuffs that day.  It may not look like a lot of yarn from up top...

...so I pulled all the skeins of sock yarn and spread them on the bed.

 And this isn't even counting the mini-skeins that my Valentine sent me!  I've tried to put them together based on type.  In the front left section is all the Koigu, with all my Malabrigo in the front right.  Behind all the Koigu on the left is some Noro Kureon sock with a lot of assorted Knit Picks behind it.  There's even three sneaky skeins of Madelinetosh merino light hiding behind the Malabrigo on the right. 

Mmmm... I love all this stuff so much!  

Here's the Malabrigo sock just hanging out.  The yellow "ochre" colorway is my absolute favorite! 

And here is all my lovely Koigu. 

I may actually have enough yarn to finish my quilt from just my stash...  But that didn't stop me from ordering another skein of Koigu yesterday.  ;)

I'm moving in with my sister later this week.  Once I get my stash moved and my knitting station set up, I might give you guys a little tour of my real stash...  

Lovely Cowl

Or is that presuming too much?   This cowl is covered in lots of tiny hearts just waiting to warm you with their love!  If your neck could use a little love, give this cutesy cowl a try!  ♥