Knitting the blues*

It's a blue summer

I've become utterly obsessed with blue lately - which most conveniently goes well with last summer's obsession, chartreuse-yellow - and I'm knitting (and buying) an absurd amount of navy.

It all started with a pair of java socks for my brother-in-law, his IOU Christmas present. I bought two skeins (because his feet are enormous) of a baltic blue variagated sock yarn in Helsinki in April. I finally completed and sent them off to him in June. The pattern is cable throughout, so takes a bit longer, but also, as noted, his feet are seriously enormous. Anyway, better late than never. And surprisingly, I have enough left over for a pair of socks for myself (ok, so maybe his feet aren't that enormous. I'm probably just justifying why his Christmas present was so inexcusably late).

icy baltic blue

Next, I knit a citron shawl as a wedding gift for a friend. Her wedding colours were navy, so I used a midnight blue Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace.

I call this one naval (for navel orange, another citrus....get it?)

I was really happy with how this turned out, and was tempted to keep it for myself, especially as it would have been perfect with the outfit I wore to the wedding. But I managed to resist those selfish urges for once. And the wedding happened to be during the only beautiful weekend we've had all summer, so I didn't actually need a shawl at all.

New blue skirt worn with last summer's
chartreuse-yellow tulip top

After that came Kukka, the next installation in my knitting Norah project. Kukka is a funky asymmetric tee with tails in the front that you can tie up or leave dangling, as the fancy takes you. I did mine in Katia cotton/linen.

Almost the best thing about this top is that I can use
the Viking pin I got in Tallinn to fasten the ties.

And then comes Raiun, a partly ribbed short-sleeved cardigan from the genius knitwear architect Kirsten Johnstone.

I love how the rib pattern angles down the back
© Tamara Erbacher

I really wanted to do this in, predictably, chartreuse-yellow. But I couldn't find anything at Woolfest in the right shade, so instead, predictably, I picked out a midnight blue wool/silk from Ripples Crafts.

I've now knit several projects with this yarn, all from different hand dyers (I'm assuming that Fyberspates, Ripples Craft and Old Maiden Aunt all have the same supplier of wool/silk yarn, because it feels so similar).

My most recently completed project in this yarn is a shawl from an Old Maiden Aunt skein that I purchased last year. Naturally in chartreuse-yellow. I think it looks fabulous with my new navy bamboo dress.

Ginko shoulderette shawl

Will this spate of navy ever end? Keep tuned for further craft projects.

* A nod to Rowland Solly's Killing the Blues, which I first heard in Tucson, Arizona - a place that really knows how to do summer. Here is John Prine's version: