Yarn: Zitron Unisono [2 skeins 1225 gray-purple; 656 yards]
Needle Size: 5mm
Ravelry Project Page: Northern Lights
Some patterns are just made for long colour changing yarns and Northern Lights is one of them. In fact, I don't think I've seen a solid version of it although I'm sure there are quite a few. I have wanted to make this pattern for a very long time but it's so simple that it needed just the right yarn so I put it to the back of my mind while I searched for the perfect yarn. And then I met Unisono. I fell in love with this yarn because it feels incredible and then i discovered that what looks variegated in the hank actually has long colour changes and my mind instantly went to Northern Lights. I did a quick search to confirm and bought two skeins right away.
I thought it was a dream to knit with and then I washed it. As soon as I lifted it out of the water I just wanted to pet it so I knew that once it dried it was going to be even more amazing to touch. The colours are incredible and I will definitely be using it again.
Pattern: Multnomah
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock [3 skeins 252; 984 yards]
Needle Size: 4mm
Ravelry Project Page: Multnomah II
Around the time I started knitting Noro was a big deal. It's still a very popular brand but it was huge at the time. So I amassed quite the collection of it because every time it went on sale I'd buy a quite a few especially the Silk Garden and Silk Garden Sock. There are a few colours I like but most tend to have one colour that just doesn't fit in quite right. I understand that it's the pop of odd colour that makes Noro so interesting but some of them just don't work for me and I end up cutting it out. But this colour, 252, is my perfect Noro colour. Okay, 358 (blue, gray, purple) is also pretty perfect. But there is just something about the bright green and deeper blue that I love about this colourway.
When it comes to Noro I love feather and fan and other scalloped edgings because these stitches just show it off exactly the way I love showing it off. Multnomah is a pattern I have made before and it's another magical pattern that looks good in solids, variegateds, and of course long colour changing yarns. I made this one h-u-g-e. I used 2.5 times the yardage and I love the size of it.
Pattern: February Mystery Shawl
Yarn: Koigu KPM [2 skeins 1205 yellow 350 yards; 1.5 skeins 1160 merlot 262 yards]
Needle Size: 4mm
Ravelry Project Page: February Mystery Shawl
Sometimes you do need to do a little work for a simple knit instead of having the yarn do all the work. One of my new favourite ways to stripe is the vanishing colour where one fades into another. I think for a simple pattern it really ends up looking great.
I loved the two colours together but as they were knitting up I felt like they were a little too off but once I washed it the red in the merlot ran a bit and darkened the yellow which made it look a lot better actually. The merlot is now a lot darker than when it was knitting up but in the sun the red undertones pop out and it looks great. In regular light it's more of a dark brown which I think also looks great.
I strayed from the pattern a bit. First, I read the yardage wrong and thought I needed almost 400 yards of each colour so when I was almost done the pattern I thought it was odd at how small it was turning out. When I went back and re-read the yardage requirements I noticed my error. But I also noticed that the bottom of the shawl didn't match the top so I tried my best to make it symmetrical but ran out of yellow and needed to use the rest of the merlot for the cast off. I think it worked out nicely. I definitely plan on making something similar but with a better plan in mind.
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