Fall into Winter - Knitting Season Ahead

    Fall is here!

        Fall is my favorite time of year, when the Maple trees change colors after the first frost.  The Summer is winding down, the kids are back in school and Halloween is just around the corner. The season is busy, busy, busy with the coming family holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, down the road.

     Recently, I have been working a modified version of the Vogue knitting (Early Fall 2014) pattern, entitled, Turn, Turn, Turn. 

     It just so happens, that I had some lovely "Bernat Satin" yarn in a worsted weight 100% Acrylic that has a nice hand to it and the color was perfect for this project. Actually, it turns out that a fuzzier yarn I had my eye on would not have worked out as well, since I ended up un-knit this project three times!

Can you imagine the angst I would have encountered had I chosen to do this in Mohair?? 

The instructions called for knitting the back in a stockinette stitch and the front (with cables) in a reverse stockinette stitch, which I found rather odd and not much to my liking. So, I modified the front instructions to a stockinette stitch that matches the back section.   I think it looks much better.

     The first few times, the side panels were done according to the pattern, purling on RS. However, since the back section was done in stockinette stitch, it would look awkward at the side seams, so I amended the pattern to knit at the side panel areas (see below), which made more sense to me.

     This outcome pleases me more and I'm glad I amended the pattern before getting too far into the length of the front section.  I love the cables section, although there were a few glitches along the way with that, too. I guess I wasn't paying attention while watching, The Wire, and neded to go back more than a few times to correct my errors.  Now I checking my work after each row to make sure that I'm keeping the pattern straight.

     The sleeves is shown in two different lengths - 3/4 length (which I love) or in the long sleeve version, which is more practical for cooler weather. Not yet deciding on which version to make, I'm leaning towards the longer version and guess that after the front is completed I make my final choice.  I can't wait until this project is completed.  In the meantime . . . 

Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park

       Recently, I learned that  my childhood beach town, Cannon Beach, has a fully stocked yarn shop called, "Coastal Yarns".  

They have many delightful yarns and supplies, just perfect for starting a new project after a long walk on the beach.   What better inspiration than the coast, eh? 
  

     A multitude of rich colors await your knitting desires, from blues and greens of the ocean, to the dark hunter greens surrounding Douglas Fir trees in outlying forested hills, your senses will come alive!  And of course, there are the colors of  the bleached out cottages and the sand itself to entice your imagination.

    The shop offers a colorful array of yarn choices, in varying textures and yarn contents. You could easily spend a few hours in the shop, chatting and sharing your knitting stories with the staff. On a rainy day, this would be a welcome hang out. Just be sure to bring some yummy snacks :)

Coastal yarns also carries a line of  locally hand-dyed yarns from, "Blue Moon", located in Scapoose.  

        

     Now, I'm getting excited about learning how to dye yarn for my own color palette of Taupe, which I have yet to find in any LYS or by any manufacturer of yarns.  Why is this such an impossible color to find?  I realize that taupe comes in many shades, but I still feel there's a large color spectrum missing in yarn choices.

 Paint Chip Samples of Many Taupe Shades

Fingernail Taupe Shades