More Swatches!

Hey Everyone! 

Yesterday I got industrious and started making color swatches for the KnitPicks Palette yarn that I have. I decided to pull out the yarn I have used so far to make socks, which amounts to six colors and started making color swatches. 

I also started a personal KnitPicks Palette Yarn inventory of what colors I have, what colors I want that I don’t have, how many full balls I have in my stash, how many partial balls, do I have scrapes left over that would be just enough for stripes, how many pairs of each color I have, how many pairs I have using the partial balls and combined colors etc. I also added a column to note which colors I have and do not have color swatches for. 

Yes, the spreadsheet and knitting up swatches has taken a lot of work. I started about 3 pm yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, and now at 4 pm Wednesday afternoon, the six color swatches plus two gauge swatches of Cascade Eco+ Yarn are drying while pinned to a blocking board. 

I should also note that I was also up until 2 this morning working on swatches. So I am kind of dragging today. 

The plan is, going forward, with the KnitPicks Palette yarn is to knit the color swatches each time I start a pair of socks using a new color that I don’t have a swatch for yet. That way I will for sure have a swatch for said color. It will also alleviate the pressure to knit so many swatches at once. It will also make it easier if colors are similar, each color will have a swatch knit up, washed, blocked and labeled before I move on to another color. 

But Erica, why are you wanting all these swatches? That’s a good question. I want to make some sort of swatch board or swatch cards of the KnitPicks Palette yarn, because it is so far my favorite wool sock yarn, and swatches are a lot smaller and easier to deal with if I am wanting to decide on a color combination for a new pair of socks, or if I want to figure out what color a certain pair of socks is. That is why I am kind of leaning toward the swatch cards so it will be easier to move around and put colors next to each other. Then I am not trying to dig out my leftover yarn tubs and making a huge mess to find the yarn I want to use, and mix everything up. 

Being able to know what I have in my stash and how much, is why I did the spread sheet. I like being able to see pretty much what I have and how much I have and have that at my fingertips. I am a person who is about being as organized as possible. 

I am not a huge fan of wearing socks when I am around the house and such. I am working on so many pairs of socks, because the ones I make are a better quality and thick enough to be good boot socks without being too thick. Beings that I love knitting and love hiking, I figured I could teach myself how to knit my own boot socks, for when I go hiking. That is part of why I went with the Palette yarn in the first place, because it is 100% wool, yet is lightweight. It keeps your feet warm without being super bulky. 

My Current Color Palette

Hey Everyone!

While I have subliminally known the colors I gravitate towards for a while, my knitting Instagram feed just confirmed it. 

I am definitely not a bright colors person. I prefer blues, and the darker natural colors. That is pretty much all I am working with at the moment. 

Once I finish the pair of socks that I am working on, I really want to work with the Pink I have sitting (it is also Palette Yarn, in color: “Victorian”), and create some diversity in my Instagram feed. I also need some diversity in my wash bucket, so I don’t get pairs mixed up, when I hang them out to dry. 

In order to add a little bit of color to my Instagram feed, I took this picture:

This is most of my wool sock yarn stash, not all of it, but most. I still have about three pairs of forest green socks to make, as well as two pairs of the Victorian socks once I finish up the Larch Heather socks, before I am going to dive into the bucket of sock yarn. 

Falling in Love with Color

Hey Everyone!

A few months ago I went a bit crazy shopping for sock yarn, and bought a whole bunch of the KnitPicks Palette yarn in many different colors. Most of which have either been in the earthy – natural range that remind you of being outdoors, and remind me of hiking in the woods. Most of the rest of the yarn are jewel tones, which are some of my favorites.

I am currently working on a pair of socks, for myself, using the KnitPicks Palette Yarn in Larch Heather, and I am loving the color. To me this green reminds me of being out hiking in the woods, and the color of the moss and other plants that I have seen growing in the woods.

While I am not usually one to pick out the earth tones to wear, especially since they are not the colors that look the best on me, I am having fun with colors. I am picking out ones I like that I wouldn’t normally wear, for socks. Beings that I intend for most of these to be Boot Socks to wear with hiking boots, and in the cooler weather, they will be covered up anyone. I figure, who cares if they don’t go with what I am wearing, they are just socks, and if no-one likes them, that is their problem. Though I do own a tank top that is a similar color to the Larch Heather, that I typically wear under cranberry colored tops.

I may have mentioned this in other posts, but I used to like to wear a lot of pink when I was younger, before I really was able to embrace the outdoorsy girl thing. Now that I have gotten older, and have been buying most of my clothes myself, as well as the yarn to knit up items for myself. There are still some pink things here and there, but they aren’t pastel pink, or hot pink, they are more of a darker pink, tending more toward cranberry or raspberry. I also like to wear a lot of blue, dark teal, and turquoise. I also prefer the natural colors (off white, tan, and brown), in addition to the greens and blues for accessories, beings that they go with pretty much anything. They are also a bit of color without being all like “look at me, look at me”.

I also like using the Palette yarn for socks, it knits up so well, and quickly. Beings that it is what I have gotten onto for Socks, I can buy any color I want, and use the pattern I came up with for any of the colors and I get consistent results. I like that I know I will get consistent results with this yarn. When I had been working at the knitting studio, we had some yarns, that were the same brand and same line, but different colors would knit up differently. I like knowing that I can go into my stash of Palette yarn, grab any color I want, and it will knit up the same way as the first pair I knit up. I can combine colors and one won’t be thicker than the other, or looser than the other when using the same needles, and that the stitches and gauge will be even across all the colors, no matter which one I use.