Thursday, June 19, 2008

BEACH ALONG DAY TWO: Choosing your yarns

SAMPLE YARNS

One of my favorite things about free-range knitting is that you can use practically any yarn, any place. Still, different combinations will yield different results. Where I generally use specialty yarns (I don't much like the term 'novelty'. Reminds me of clowns and firecrackers), for this project I selected plainer, hand-dyed, yarns with bits of unusual divas here and there. Where usually I focus on yarn combos, here the emphasis is on stitchwork, not fancy or complicated but combined in such a way as to evoke the sea.

Also, there's the little matter of the season. Mentally and physically, we crave cool and light rather than dense and heavey, so away we swerve from the hefties and aim for light wools, wool/silk blends, linens, cottons and maybe some silk for this vest. Those who know me know I'm addicted to silk so, of course, some of my waves crest in gleaming swirls of silk but mostly the beach latte is cotton.

In the photo above, I've laid out the strands of my primary players: a hand-dyed silk and wool blend, a blue cotton with two more silkies for the wave action. For the most part, I've aimed for yarns calling for 4-4.5mm /6-7 US needles again to keep the hand light.

So...ready to cast on?