It's A Stash Thing

Great British Yarns are AMAZING!  Not only are they the only UK-based company to stock a massive range of Knit Picks yarns (that I know of anyway), their service is absolutely astounding.  I ordered 2 balls of Palette yesterday, and this morning, there was a happy looking envelope waiting on the windowsill (ALSO - IT'S SUNNY ENOUGH TODAY FOR ENVELOPES TO BE LEFT ON WINDOWSILLS!  :D).  Super-fast delivery is my kind of delivery!

As you can see, I managed to find my mustard colour.  I've been pottering away designing some autumnal gloves, and I think this yellow-y orange is the perfect colour for autumn.  It compliments the turning of the leaves rather well I think :)

Here is a little sneaky preview of the pattern:

I absolutely cannot wait until it's time to share the finished thing with you all!  It's taking a lot of determination not to just type out all the details now!  I think part of my problem is that I struggle ever-so-slightly with the mathematics involved in designing knitted patterns.  In order to try and convince myself that I'm a professional (HA!!), I did my first ever test swatch to try and work out the number of stitches to cast on.  Oh dear, oh dear!  What a disaster THAT was!  It would have been like knitting gloves for an elephant!

Still, I'm enjoying the challenge of all this maths and logic.  And as a treat for sticking with it, I also added another colour to my online yarn basket yesterday, then promptly forgot which extra colour I'd ordered.  Imagine my delight when I opened the envelope this morning to discover this little beauty!

Lucy over at Attic24 recently blogged about colour, and talked about "soul colours" - those ones we are instinctively drawn to.  This is definitely mine; a deep stormy grey.  Grey gets a lot of stick for being dull or boring, but I really don't see it that way at all (and to my relief, I've also discovered that there are plenty of other grey souls out there!).

That said, I'm also a fan of brightness and less moody colours...  My little stash-busting blanket is coming along well, and I'm actually quite surprised at how well the colours are holding together...

I'm not following any particular pattern as far as the striping is concerned, but just trying to balance out the light and dark.  My plan is to edge it in a creamy colour - probably in crochet rather than knit - so hopefully that will help the whole thing look more "together".

Anyway, the needles are calling (they miss me when I'm not there you know...).  But if you do have any idea what you're meant to do with a test swatch once you've made one, then do leave a comment and let me know!  I'd love to feel a tad more profesh!  ;)

Until next time!

Kim x