Joyce Makes Art

Grayscale Photos For Selecting Colorways To Knit Together

Remember yesterday's post about selecting colors to knit a Big Island Wrapper?  I've been obsessing about which colors to choose and posted on Ravelry about my quandary.  A nice knitter responded with a tip I should have thought of first thing and wanted to share with you all, in case anyone else finds themselves picking among colors for a project (in other words, what knitters do every day).

The tip is, take a photo of your possibilities and grayscale it.

By removing the color hues from your photo, all you see are the color values.  This gives you a sense of whether you will get good contrast among your colors, assuming that is what you are after.  This process is particularly helpful for fair isle knitting and I use it religiously for that purpose.  But I didn't think to apply it here at first.  And I'm glad I did.  As a result, I've narrowed my choices to Peacock and Water Dancer, although I had started to lean towards Yosemite before looking at the grayscale photo.  Here is a repeat of the color photo from yesterday.

This isn't an absolute rule and for stripes or other non-stranded knitting, you may not want a high contrast.  But, this is a great tool to have in the knitter's tool kit.  It will help you get the results you want.

My Next Project: Big Island Wrapper

Although I'm in the middle of knitting a sweater, I'm planning to cast on a new project sometime this week.  I want a casual shawl for chilly early mornings when I drink tea and read the paper on the back deck and for evening walks at the beach.  And I found this gorgeous pattern.

© Little Church Knits

This is the Big Island Wrapper, a bulky shawl with some mesh bits and enough texture to keep the knitting interesting, while giving the option of combining some fun colors together.  Although it's written for a bulky cotton yarn, I'm going to knit mine in a bulky Blue Faced Leciester, for a bit of extra snuggle factor.  Cheryl/Little Church Knit's patterns are all really cute, and I debated two of her other shawls before deciding on this one, although I'm sure I'll come back to knitting both Marcelle and Diamonds for Lisa. Her sock patterns look awfully interesting as well. But this go round, I've chosen Big Island, and I'm excited about knitting it.

First, though, I'm going to have to make some color choices.  I've been doing some experimenting with layers of color on a skein for the last few months, and it just so happens that some of my favorites are on Elliebelly Big Blue, so I'm going to select from among them.  Here are my choices -- I'm sad I can only pick three of them for this project, because I'm fond of them all together.

There are a lot of possibilities with these colors.  Since these colors are all experiments none of them have names yet, but I've put them together in groupings to try and help myself make a choice.

To make the choice even more difficult, I've got some variegated skeins that would work in well, including this lovely skein of Madeline Tosh Chunky.

I've been debating the merits of the different possibilities back and forth all weekend.  I want something welcoming and inviting that will be very cozy -- they all seem to fit the bill, although in very different ways.  I'm hoping one will emerge as my clear favorite so I can get started by midweek.  I need to mark up the pattern to use with Knit Companion, the program I use with my iPad for managing patterns, and then I'll be ready to start.

 

 

Mithril. Now In Silk And Linen.

I've cast on for the Mithril Tee Shirt pattern.

It is, actually, being knit by me.  But Harry, my huge Maine Coon Cat, thinks it's his project.  I've never seen a cat so attracted to linen and silk.  You sort of get the appeal for them with wool, but this one is a little bit of a mystery.  He's very protective of it, though.

The yarn is a DK weight blend of 65% silk and 35% linen, Elliebelly Chemise.  It has everything I like about knitting with linen, but the silk makes it slide nicely through my fingers and it doesn't have the scratchy feeling linen can sometimes have when you knit with it.  This is my first foray into sweater knitting with this yarn -- it's been a standard for scarves and wraps.  And I'm interested in compiling a list of pattern ideas for it, so please chime in in the comments if you have any!

Finished: Zigzagular Socks

I'm so happy to be finished with my - now my daughter's - Zigzagular Socks. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow and the shaping is lovely. They blocked out perfectly.

The color is much more accurate in this second photo. And you can see the zig and the zag. This is the perfect pattern for a highly variegated yarn and it shows them off to perfection.

I've Got New Needles!

It started a long time ago with these pretties. 

These are my Vermont Applewood Interchangeably Darn Pretty Knitting Needles from Dyak Craft.  I love these guys.  But sadly, due to a supply failure in the laminated Dymondwood these needles are made from, they are no longer available.  And, if you're like me, you need a couple of sizes of each needle on hand.  So I ordered a pair of Dyak Craft's newest needles, their Northern Lights set in Robin's Egg Blue.  And they're here! 

I'm in love already!  It's a pretty set and the color will stand out nicely behind my knitting, making it easy to see.  I've cheated a bit -- trying these out in a different finish before investing in the set, so I know I love the way the stitches slide off of the needles easily, but only when I want them to.

Next up for me is my long-awaited Mithril Tee in Elliebelly's Chemise Silk/Linen DK weight yarn.  New needles, new project.  What more could a girl ask for?

 

Almost Socks

I'm looking forward to closing up the toes and finishing Zigzagular!

Although I don't think I'm ready to play in Sock Madness, there is something wonderful about knitting socks. They are fun and soothing and it's impossible to feel anything less than accomplished when you watch a sock grow off of five tiny needles. If you haven't, you should try sock knitting!

Sent from my iPhone

Good Read, Good Knit

Here's a good read and a good knit for your weekend.  The book, Knitting Ephemera by Carolyn Sulcoski is crammed full of interesting knitting facts you need to know.  And you'll enjoy its engaging format.  I've been leafing through a few pages here and there to avoid finishing it too quickly.  It's lots of fun -- you need it now.

The knit is Purl Soho's free Seed Stitch Mittens pattern.  This pair was knit up by Raveler Kipperdawg in Elliebelly Pixie Merino.  The yarn is part of what has become my annual summertime binge of natural dyeing, which always starts of with a vat of black bean dyed yarn while I'm waiting for the dye herbs to grow.  This is the first time I've been able to achieve this soft brown, and I'm grateful for all of the natural dyers who share their notes and processes on line!  Black bean dyeing is fun and easy and I strongly encourage you to try it if you've been playing with koolaid or easter egg dyes and are ready to move on or even if you're an experienced dyer interested in experimenting with natural process.  The results are slightly unpredictable and always fun, as these lovely mittens prove.

Blogging With A Concussion

The thing about concussions is that one has about half of one's brain at one's disposal.  Not enough brain to work, and sadly not enough brain to knit with either.  I am getting in a round here and there on my very easy socks that can be knit with your eyes closed, but that's about it at the moment, so I thought I would share a few photos for you Tuesday viewing pleasure.

Dyeing red can be tricky.  The secret is multiple layers of colors that give you a true clear red that doesn't have pink undertones (unless you are looking for them, in which case, the process is the same, but with different colors underneath the red layers).  This is my first experiment on a new to me yarn base that combines silk and merino, but spins the yarn so that different plies absorb the color differently.  I'm in love with this one.  More experimentation coming!

Purple Rain.  Just because.

I've started winding the yarn for my summer sweater, a silk/linen concoction.  Note to self: winding yarn with a concussion isn't really the brightest of ideas.  I convinced myself the yarn wouldn't tangle if I laid it out neatly on the floor and hand wound it.  Wrong.  But it only took me two days to produce the pretty ball in my shoe from the tangle below.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing you a happy day, no matter how you're spending it. Knitting is such a big part of the fabric of my family, along with cooking, time spent together talking and laughing, and adventuring, that no Mother's Day would be complete without at least a little bit of time devoted to the yarn obsession. Here is the view from my morning. I hope your day is similarly perfect.

Much love,

Joyce

Heel Flap #2

I'm always grateful for those rare occasions where my husband and I have meetings that overlap, especially when that means he drives. Because, knitting time.

This is the heel flap for my second Zigzagular sock, and it's perfect for today as I can knit this part with my eyes closed.

I'm still recovering from Saturday's yoga injury. Fortunately, I only managed a round or two while in the ER waiting room, as the big whack to the head I got didn't do much to fine tune my knitting skills (you note that I did add a counter on my needles just for the flap so I can make sure the number of rows match sock #1).