I have a confession to make - I am a color junkie. Bright, jewel tone colors, mostly blues, greens, and purples, but especially the turquoise of shallow tropical waters. My passion for color shows in the yarns I have selected so far, although I have made a point of carrying earth tones, too. I admit to loving earth tones almost as much as jewel tones.
One of the more color-rich yarns I currently have is Mini Mochi, a sock yarn by Crystal Palace. This yarn is so soft - it is a single ply that is more like a fine roving. It self-stripes in beautiful segues. And it is not just for socks, either. There are some free patterns on the Crystal Palace website; one of them is for Fair Isle mittens and a hat made of two colors of Mini Mochi. Needing some shop models I could make up fast, I decided to make the hat, using color 104 Fern Rainbow and 108 Neptune Rainbow.
As a non-repentant color junkie, I can tell you that these colors are fabulous, and the resulting hat (6 inches from being finished) is glorious! The yarn itself is wonderful to work with, lovely hand, and did I mention the colors are as rich as Godiva chocolate?
I also have Trekking XXL, which is a sock weight yarn, somewhere between fingering and DK. In the Winter 2008 issue of Knitter's a pattern called Raglan Rust uses two colors of Trekking XXL carried together to create a unique color combination. I am quite eager to make this sweater and take advantage of the infinite color possibilities offered by carrying any two colors together.
A question for you Cascade fans - what do you think of Brown Sheep as an alternative to Cascade? I personally have not knit with Cascade, but I have knit considerably with Brown Sheep, and like it quite well. Can anyone tell me how the two compare?
Today being Mother's Day, my cats gave me a lovely hydrangea plant, a box of Ferrero Roche chocolates, and a very sweet card. After Bob has been caffeinated we are going to go buy plants and potting soil. I want to put at least one planter outside the shop, but realistically it will need to be big enough that it won't be portable enough to steal. Gone are the days when locked doors were the exception, and people simply did not touch that which did not belong to them.
So - a plant shopping I shall go. Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are mothers, and please knit responsibly.
I haven't knit with Brown Sheep a lot, but I have some small scraps that someone gave me, and I find I'm not a fan of the mohair content. A bit too harsh on my hands, which is why I prefer Cascade 220 as a "workhorse" wool. I know Brown Sheep does have some yarns without mohair, but I've never tried those.
ReplyDeleteI've used both quite a bit. I like Brown Sheep as a single and it does lovely color work. Cascade I use more for sweaters and hats. It's plied, so that makes a difference in texture. Cascade felts better than Brown Sheep.
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