It’s true, I do lament when an “old favorite” shade is discontinued by the manufacturers – How dare they?!  But, it turns out there really can be virtue in having an updated color palette.

Today, a customer wrote to me, asking for color guidance in creating a “pink” version of my Tiger Lily Jacket design, in either Heilo or Falk.  Over the years, I’ve put together  countless different colorways for that 4-color design – tons in blues, greens, reds, naturals, but few, if any, in pinks.  Although I’ve loved pink ever since my very first (and last) tutu, I was never really wild about too many of the pinkish possibilities within Heilo or Falk for Tiger Lily.  It gets complicated!  You have not just one, but two backgrounds to think about, and they have to play nicely together.  You have to balance the contrasts both between and within the main and the trim sections.  You need “pop” from a few different angles. So, I needed more than just one pink to love and those pinks needed well-behaved playmates.

Recently, a few new colors have been added to both Heilo and Falk, nicely expanding upon the possibilities for pinkish colorways. Last year, they added new purples and plums everywhere!  Within both lines, they’ve just recently added “Prune #4263″, a beautiful, deep “oxblood” type of shade – a perfect foil for so many colorwork motifs, offering more warmth and depth than we typically get from the usual cast of characters from The Dark Side, like black, grey or navy.  (And it’s as gorgeous for menswear as it is for floral cardigans.)  With the help of some of these newer shades, I quickly put together two different takes on a pink Tiger Lily that I’m happy with.

On the left, the muted “plum smoke” from Heilo lends depth to the lighthearted rose, while maintaining a light, girly appearance overall. (Okay, I have to confess, ever since bagging the tutu and heading for some higher branches way up in the trees, or scrambling low under the fence, or catching pop flies, or tackling brothers, or…well, you see, I’m not exactly the “girly” type.) On the right, pink gets some serious depth, thanks to “Prune 4263″ in the upper background, “magenta” below, and lively “creme” and “moss green” for the details.  (Now that’s more my speed.)

Are you a pink fan?  What do you think?

Sorry you couldn’t all be there.  Maybe next time!  For now, I’ll share just a few of my slides, to give you a taste:

“Stranded Knitting”, Copyright 2013 Mary Ann Stephens

The placement of color values – light motifs on dark backgrounds, or dark motifs on light backgrounds – can be simply a matter or taste…or, with some motifs, it can make a huge difference!
Copyright 2013 Mary Ann Stephens

“Goldilocks, get those Three Bears juuuuuust right!”

Newer Heilo cards imply DK gauge for a Sport weight classic. I say stick with the 6 sts/inch gauge, used for decades.

Vintage grey Heilo, pulled from my stash, with all 3 ball band gauges = 24 sts / 4″. Brand new off-white Heilo, far right, with ball band gauge = 22 sts / 4″. All 4, old and new, weigh 50g, with length = 100m.  The product is UNCHANGED!  I guess the new, looser suggested gauge is an attempt to associate the same old Heilo (and Falk, too) with lighter weight, more flowing, contemporary designs. Although decades of sport weight Dale designs using Heilo suggest the time-honored 6 sts/inch sport weight gauge, some of their recent Heilo / Falk designs are done at 5.5 sts/inch, a typical DK gauge.  Thanks, but I’m sticking with the time-honored 6 sts/inch sport weight gauge …for sturdy, warm sweaters with crisp colorwork.  (And for hats, mittens, socks, I shoot for 7 sts/inch.)  If you want a lighter-weight result, simply use a lighter weight yarn! 

Happy Shopping and Happy Spring!

A common request around here lately: “More monkeys, please!”

Today’s answer: “Coming right up!”

You’re just one click away from one dozen new colorway ideas for my Monkey Hat using Dale of Norway Baby Ull yarn, our hands-down favorite for the newborn & toddler sizes.

My new Shamrock Mittens, knit in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.  Sized to fit an 8″ adult female palm circumference.  The  PDF is available for purchase and download through Ravelry.  The Spindrift yarn (in natural white and…you guessed it…”leprechaun”) is available through Kidsknits.com.  Kit link coming shortly.  (Call my US toll-free 877-631-3031 to order in time for St. Patricks Day.) UPDATE: Here’s the kit link!

The “Blizzard of 2013″ (the first one, at least) swept in this past Friday, bringing 30+ inches of snow to our area, along with frantic cries of “Ahhhh, what’s your quickest, easiest hat?!?!?”  I was tempted to pull out some newspaper and get folding.  Nah, that won’t do!  Want something reeeeeeally quick?  Time to break out the old crochet hook.  Add to that some super bulky Hubro, maybe a few scraps of Heilo, if you want to get fancy, and in no time at all – presto – one pretty fine looking chapeau!

Here’s the free crochet pattern as a downloadable PDF: QE1

Stay cozy!

Riverside Cowl, Knit in Dale of Norway Royal Alpakka.

Some alternate colorway ideas for my Riverside Cowl design:

Got a favorite?  Get the customizable kit here.

We’ll start with my Tiger Lily Jacket design:

The original (above, shot in bright light, and in the background, below, shot indoors) was done in four shades of Heilo: Light Heather 2931, Burnt Orange 3418, Lava Rust 3727 and Bronze 9834.  All of those shades have been discontinued in Heilo, except for the Light Heather.  (Sniff…whimper…sob!)

But, we still have several options for putting together a very similar colorway.

If you want to stick with Heilo, 100% Norwegian wool (my personal favorite), as you can see, the new “red orange” #3237 is really a dead ringer for the old burnt orange.  They’ve recently added a wonderful new shade, “prune” 4263 that’s a bit darker and more saturated than my old lava rust, but to tell you the truth, in stranded knitting, where contrast is key, I think that this new prune is actually an improvement over the old lava rust.  While those 3 shades are easily selected, the 4th one is the trouble-maker.  In Heilo, your only option for something anywhere near the old “bronze”, used for the motif in the border, would be “sunglow” 2126 – a noticeably lighter, brighter soft yellow. Bronze was muted and earthy; sunglow is clear and bright. And with a deeper background provided by the new prune shade, sunglow will become even more pronounced.  Perhaps a good thing – some would prefer the livelier combination – but it definitely depends upon your own inclinations – some prefer earthy and muted.

If you move over to Falk, the same, first three colors are essentially the same.  But, we’re still missing that old, beloved bronze. Falk “gold” 2427 is a bit deeper and warmer than the Heilo sunglow.  It’s nice on top of the new prune background (even if does make me think of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts scarf.) Like Heilo’s sunglow, it will make for a livelier, more pronounced border motif. Falk “citron” 9725 is definitely the closest substitute for bronze in Falk, but it’s lighter and brighter than the old bronze and it is a bit more greenish, too.  Really, any of the currently available border motif choices will result in a brighter, more pronounced border.  You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you like that idea.  Yellows and yellow-greens are funny – they’re quite flattering for some people, yet they make others look like they have a liver complaint.  You’ll know best where you fall in that camp with these choices.  Please do consider that point for this design, for whatever you use as the bronze substitute, it will be the color closest to your face:

(well, my rusty old shirt was the closest color to my rusty old face here, but you get the idea.)

Now, here’s where the REAL fun begins:  there are tons of other current color combinations that are possible for this (and most any colorwork) design.  Here are a few that went out over the last week for Tiger Lily:

There are probably about thirty different Tiger Lily colorways that I have on file, but many use discontinued colors. (Sob…again!)  I’ll be adding to the above collection when I can.  In the meantime…got your own combination in mind?  Let me know!