every now and then i like to surround myself with rainbowy things. maybe it's just the "default" colourscheme because i don't want to commit myself to a colourway i might get bored of or dislike some time later - but i actually don't think so... i just like it when colours flow.
after i finished my mixed stitch blanket i had lots of this cotton yarn left - i don't recommend using cotton for making blankets by the way - and then i discovered that another brand of cotton i still had from a failed project - i used some of it for Mrs. Penstemmon, my african flower hippo - requires the same size needle and i could mix them and create a more complete rainbow effect.
last summer i ordered this yarnkit to make a crochet circle cardigan and when i thought about what to do with all the leftover cotton i decided to make a smaller version for R to wear in spring and summer. (it all started when i found this post somehow.) the above picture shows the beginnings of it and i'm past the armholes and all the way round with the colours already, starting again with the dark red.
i'm also working on a pair of mojo socks using Schoppel Zauberball "Frische Fische". it is not a perfect rainbow because it does not have any purple and goes from dark blue - almost black - back over green and yellow to red and from red back to blue...
as much as i love watching my socks grow and the beautiful colours morph into each other - when i'm knitting with Zauberball i almost like seeing how the ball changes even more...
i have two of these left from my circle cardigan and they will be turned into socks at some point too. unless i desperately need rainbow yarn for something else... it could happen...
on to the scrap yarn:
i'm very excited about this! i'm in a group called Winwick Mum Knit n Natter on facebook where members can share knitting and crochet (anything really - yarn related or not) projects, yarn purchases, ups and downs, techniques, links to patterns, questions about techniques and patterns, etc. it's a really lovely place. very friendly and encouraging and helpful. a while ago i came across this post about socks knitted from leftovers and we started talking about what we could do with our sock yarn scraps in the group. there are lots and lots of possibilities...
but i'm a sock knitter at heart so that's what i want to do... and then a lovely lady named Rosemary told me how she used to swap yarn scraps with a friend. i loved that idea and was sad that i don't have anyone around who i could swap yarn scraps with... and you know what: she kindly offered to do a yarn swap with me! so we sent each other the first load of sock yarn left overs, parting them roughly in the middle so we would each have the same yarn. we will both knit socks with it and even though we work with the same materials the results will be different because of our induvidual colour choices, pattern choice and so on... i'm really looking forward to seeing what we are going to come up with.
in the above picture you can see my collection so far (my actual sock yarn scrap stash is much bigger - those are the swap sock scraps). it's funny how we both went with a similar colourscheme without knowing what the other one would send... the three balls on the right are the ones Rosemary sent me and she dyed them herself. i love them! (she sent me some other lovely things too...) the pink and white one has sparkle in it, the rusty brown one has lovely textural flakey bits and the purple one is my favourite shade of lilac lilac...
Thanks again, Rosemary!!!
Rosemary runs an Etsy store called Rosie's Moments. she paints and dyes sock yarn - you should go and have a look if you are a knitter (and if you are not - look anyway) - her yarns are lovely!
i can't wait to play with these yarns and arrange them and select colourways... i want to try my hand at "blending" which apparently is when you knit very few rows of each colour although not in regular stripes but in a sort of interchanging way so you can't tell the different yarns apart in the end. i've seen scrap socks knitted that way and they are soo cool! i also want to try a specific technique of toe-up with these...
(while looking for the post about the yarn blending i found this just now... isn't he awesome...?)