A good day for wool
It’s not that it’s too terribly cold out there, but it it’s raining. It’s raining on top of snow. And while I had the good sense to tunnel through the junk in the hall closet and dig out the boys’ winter boots, my enthusiasm for the project didn’t extend to unearthing my own boots. Instead I just chose whichever shoes of mine were least likely to be damaged by muck and hoped for the best.
And now, after walking through 2-inch-deep slush puddles in my Crocs, waiting for the school bus, and trudging back home through the same frigid puddles, I’m wondering what on earth I was thinking putting on shoes with holes all over them. Not my finest hour.
At this moment, I’ve changed into my coziest, comfiest clothes, brewed some coffee, and I’m thinking about how nice it is that today’s agenda centers very much around wool. Warm, dry, sleet-free wool.
I’ve got hats and neckwarmers on the brain (and the loom) this week. I’m knitting them up for the shop, for my upcoming sale, and for some gifts. And so, even though I generally consider knitting to be a leisure activity for my evening downtime, today I’ll be promoting it to a daytime job and hopefully cranking out a nice variegated brown + blue neckwarmer.
Oh, do you want to know what I discovered yesterday when I sat down at the clay table to make a few ornaments for this week’s sale? I learned two things actually:
- I am so over ornament-making right now, I couldn’t even touch the red clay.
- The new textured pastel technique I’ve been doing lately lends itself remarkably well to color-matching variegated yarns.
So no ornaments actually got made, but I cranked out a small pile of buttons with relative ease. While I really enjoy mixing up clay colors to coordinate with fabric and yarn, it is certainly not something to undertake when I’m in a hurry. So it’s incredibly freeing to discover that most of the colors I want to match are right there in my box of 72 pastels. Really, when you think about it, blending pastels together, is not unlike blending dyes together, and the resulting clay sheet is surprisingly reminiscent of the painted yarn itself. As long as your pastels exist in the correct hues, a custom color palette doesn’t get much easier than that.
I’m suddenly consumed with the irrational urge to buy up all of the Malabrigo variegated yarns and make button sets to match. Not being made of money, that will have to wait until I’m independently wealthy. It’s a fun little idea, though.
I need to wrap this blogging thing up this morning and get down to knitting, although the more I type about color-matching yarns, the more I want to make one tiny detour… See, I’ve got this really neat-looking skein of Rowan Colourscape Chunky by Kaffe Fassett (colorway #437), and it’s just screaming for a matching button. I have no idea what I’m going to knit with this wool, but it wants a button. Uh oh. Distraction, here I come…
This day in blog history:
- It only took me 8 hours - 2007
This topic in blog history:
- She of the warm neck - January 2009
- Goodies up for grabs - January 2008
- Confessions of a Recovering Cheapskate - September 2009
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i love these hats lisa! and your eye for coordinating the clay to yarn is impeccable. really nice work. i’m always amazed at all you accomplish.
ps ~ i feel very over zipper pouches right now… i know what you mean about that. but those ornaments were incredibly cute and so nicely made! i meant to tell you that when they were posted on flickr. xo
Thanks, Heather! It’s funny how we can enjoy certain tasks for only so long and then our creativity begs to be used elsewhere, isn’t it?
::: drool ::: I love Kaffe Fassett’s colourways. I have a couple of skeins of Regia that are waiting to be turned into something warm & cozy. I’m thinking handwarmers instead of socks, so I can see them all the time.
Here’s a pattern that would probably be great with that yarn.
http://www.sheepinthecity.prettyposies.com/archives/000079.html
Ooh, that looks really pretty! Thanks for the link. What’s funny is that the yarn shop she mentions in her post (Imagiknit) is the place where I ordered those balls of yarn in my first photo! BTW, I really have no self control, and already have matching buttons for the Kaffe Fassett yarn in the oven as we speak
All your buttons are beautiful Lisa and these “pastel” are MOST beautiful!
See Petra’s latest blog post: Alison and cats
Thank you, Petra! I appreciate your comment
Ah, a day of knitting sounds divine! I’ve been admiring your buttons on your flickr stream
See beki’s latest blog post: pom-pom garland
It was a nice way to spend a day! And thanks, re: the buttons. I’d have thought I’d be sick of making them by now, but I just keep enjoying it!
Love the idea of matching buttons to varigated yarn, and they look great!
Could you get samples of the yarn, make buttons to match, and market to upscale yarn shops? The buttons really take the special yarn just one step further to yumminess (maybe it isn’t a word, but I like it)
Or you could offer a service, maybe have people send in a sample of their yarn, and have you make buttons to match in the size, style, etc they wanted.
I had that same thought! I am already selling my buttons in an upscale yarn shop, so I think next time I am there, I will mention the idea of making custom buttons to her and see if she thinks that would be something her customers would like.