I think putting together new colorways can be a lot of fun. But, it takes a lot of time, too – something I’m finding in short supply these days.  In an effort to stop wasting time on duplicated effort (okay, and to lessen my urge to cry when I think of some of my favorite discontinued colors) I came up with the hopefully-bright idea of showing you new, substitute colorways for some of my older designs here on the blog.  As always, you’re still welcome to request any color combinations that your dear heart desires.  But, hopefully, this will save you a bit of time, too.

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!