Last night I found myself picking up two skeins of a yarn I’ve been trying out lately… the famous Cascade 220 (Heathers).
I had chosen these two skeins at the yarn shop with a particular pattern in mind, so there was really nothing preventing me from casting on during a calm autumn evening at home. Two old episodes of Dr Who later, quite effortlessly and without even noticing really, I had achieved this.
The brim and first colourwork pattern repeat completed! Whew! With all those socks lately, I had really forgotten how quickly things go in worsted weight! However, there is a but. The colours are not doing it for me.
You see, back in the yarnshop, I had first picked up this red to pair it up with a medium gray. Then, after a lot of debating with myself about the pros and cons of ‘a really beautiful colour combo’ vs. ‘while pretty, too classical and frequently used’, I decided to replace the grey with this beige/straw/yellow/howeveryouwanttodescribeit to produce a more daring combination. Something that would be pretty, but more unusual, something which people would look at and say “wow, I never would have thought of combining those two colours, but it looks great!” Alas, what I got does not make me think that at all.
Instead, it makes me think of Burberry patterns and of old ladies. Quite the opposite of non-classical and daring. So this is going to the frog pond. The colours are still great, and I am sure it won’t be a problem to put them to good use. Just not together. So if you have some pattern recommendations to use up about 100g of worsted weight yarn, please do not hesitate to throw them my way!
fridica 
Hmmm, I quite liked your colour combo – but then I’m not going to wear the hat, am I? :D
Maybe a baby vest (like Pebble) if you have any babies among your knitwear recipients?
Patterns to use up 100g of worsted yarn? How about my whole hat collection! Some of my favs are the Trilobite hat (from knitty) and the Brattleboro Hat (from inteweave…I think). Here’s my ravelry pages for both of those patterns! http://www.ravelry.com/projects/gnomesbeatfaeries/trilobite http://www.ravelry.com/projects/gnomesbeatfaeries/brattleboro-hat
Aww no! As soon as I saw the first picture I thought “What a lovely combination! I would never have thought to put those together!” What a shame! x
you’re too harsh on yourself, I think that combo is very very nice. (but I do agree the grey would have look perfect!)
I’m not being harsh on myself (this time :), I just don’t like it.
I thought along the lines of smurfpop. Actually, they remind me of Harry Potter colors (not that I know much Harry Potter). Sorry you’re not liking it though!
Harry Potter too, yes! You’re spot on. Must have been another thing that was bugging me subconsciously… Not that I don’t like the stories, but not enough to walk around in Gryffindor colours… :)
That’s some lovely colorwork right there…I love defining knitting time in ‘Number of episodes of (blank)”. It’s very effective.
I pretty liked the color combo too, but if you prefer to knit something else….why not the snapdragon tam by Isolda Teague? It works very well with cascade 220, and I used less than a skein. It was a fun pattern to knit.
Great idea! The only thing is that I’ve knit Snapdragon twice already, and I’d kinda like to try out some brand new pattern…
what a shame! the raspberry color is beautiful, the mustard is a little more difficult to match. I can’t believe Dr Who is still living – I remember centuries ago, a boyfriend who would not go out on evenings when DW was on … can it be the same doctor who?!
It stopped, then it was restarted in 2005, and now it’s going strong again… :) I got hooked about two years ago…
have a look at Liivia’s knitting today (http://vialiivia.blogspot.com/), she’s making something with rasberry, mustard, green and gray yarns!
I like the colors together. I have an awful time picking out colors for myself and tend to stick to old stand bys and favorites. you know those safe colors blue, brown, black and grey. but this fall I knit 2 caps to give my sisters I had dyed the yarn with flowers from my garden and had an eye popping bright yellow and orange. totally out of my comfort zone for myself. but when I tried on the hat my husband remarked that it was perfect for me. so now I have a 3rd hat on the needles for myself and the very odd electric combo will cheer me when the harsh winter weather is here.
If you haven’t already ripped it back, could you try a round or two holding the two yarns the opposite way round to see if it’s a yarn dominance issue?
Failing that, would it look better with the roles of MC and CC reversed?
I agree with you that a grey would work better but you have to try these things to find out. I have just frogged a cardigan for the same reason ( I hadn’t done much) I was trying to cheer up a fawn by adding a brown trim and it just reminded me that fawn is alwasy going to be – fawn!!!
why don’t you go grab another skein of cascade, and use one of these for their intended purpose? i love the straw/old gold colored one, and i think it would look dashing with a light and bright feminine color. maybe a blush pink? or a minty seafoam? then you’ll have the burgundy one leftover for something else. another hat, or some fingerless gloves?
Knitting does go faster with Doctor Who (wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, I guess). Too bad you don’t like the colors. Can’t help you with pattern recommendation, though, I can’t even help myself. Sometimes I feel I spend more time on Ravelry browsing and choosing patterns that I do knitting. ;)
Your comment totally made my day :) Love a geek buddy :)
Why does everyone have such a hate-on for Burberry? I LOVE Burberry :(
I think it’s just that too many people loved it all at once and the streets just got too crowded with it… :)