Reason #352 why I love knitting:  Merely by changing the shades of yarn we’re using, we can give an entirely new look to beloved, old designs.

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?