Colour affection / colour disaffection

Colour Affection

I couldn't help it. I couldn't resist joining the 5200+ other knitters on Ravelry knitting the 'it' shawl of the year. Yes, I started Colour Affection.

Colour Affection © veera

For those knitters who have been living under a rock since this pattern was published in December 2011, and don't already know at least two people who are knitting it, Colour Affection is a garter stitch, 3-colour striped shawl which uses short rows to create an off-kilter collection of stripes. The stripes make it an extremely addictive knit, and it has taken the knitting world by storm (where it also goes by Colour Affliction/Infection/Addiction).

I certainly don't need another shawl, but who are we kidding, need has nothing to do with it. It is all about want. I want another shawl, I want stripes, and I want... no colour.

I am SO over colour. I want khaki, I want drab, I want beige. Here are the colours I chose for my Colour Disaffection: ivory, asparagus, thyme.

I'm trying a new (for me) yarn from my favorite online supplier, Holst Garn. The yarn is Coast, a 55% merino/45% cotton blend. More of a 3-ply than a 4-ply, but it will do. It comes in 49 wonderful shades, and I went with the least colourful combination I could find. I'm not sure if the asparagus and thyme will be enough of a contrast - but I guess I'm not really going for contrast here. I'm going for soothing, subtle khaki.

Boardwalk

I'm continuing the colour ban with Boardwalk, the new t-shirt pattern in Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People Volume 3. The simple shape is framed beautifully with garter ribbing on the bottom and sleeves, highlighted by a graphic garter rib feature at the neck.

Boardwalk © Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood

Brooklyn Tweed may scoff at summer fibres, but I thought this would be fabulous in a nice crisp linen or hemp. I'm knitting mine in Hemp for Knitting Allhemp 3, in a stark pearly-white.

After three weeks of knitting I'm only about halfway up the body, knitting on 3.25m needles (which must be the smallest size I have yet used for a garment). At least it is a nice mindless knit, and I might just finish in time for my trip to Michigan in September, where if I'm lucky I'll be able to wear it at the tail end of summer. And my khaki shawl should come in handy for those cool end-of-summer evenings.