My local yarn store posted a picture of Noro Silk Garden colorway 389, saying it had just arrived in store.
Isn't it beautiful? The bright, neon red, rust and burgundy, sinking into deep, rich purples and balanced with pastel green and pink: I just had to pick some up!
I bought my first knitting magazine last year: Noro Magazine Spring/Summer 2013. I've been flipping through it and admiring patterns for the last year, slowly going from this is too hard and who would knit this? to I would knit this, I can knit this! I knit my first sweater from the magazine, and it has given me the confidence to tackle bigger and bigger projects.
The first pattern in the magazine is #1 Scoop Neck Dress by prolific knit and crochet pattern designer, Mari Lynn Patrick. It's pretty, but a dress? When I bought the magazine, I hadn't knitted a sweater for anyone older than my one year old daughter. I was not going to knit a full length piece in some expensive sport weight yarn. That would take forever.
But then I found this colorway. I bought some skeins, thinking I'd remake my first sweater in better yarn, since it was meant for Silk Garden anyway. To knit a dress that calls for sport weight, by using worsted weight, I'd have to rewrite the pattern. And that's crazy.
And I did. That is, I'm in the process of doing so. I've knit two sleeves, and the front half of the skirt. It's a bit of a hail mary. I've never substituted a different weight of yarn on something fitted, especially not something that may take a year to knit, only to take a guess at whether it will actually fit me or look good. Yikes.
I knit one sleeve, then another. I intended for them to match, but one skein stopped just as the beautiful bright red started, and I only got a dash of it. It knit quickly into other colours, and suddenly my sleeves that had matched with parallel purple and mint stripes at the bottom, were wildly different on the top, with completely opposite colours showing up.
I frogged one sleeve and re-knit it. It always hurts me to frog something, but I am so glad I did in this case. I can't even remember what show I was watching: Game of Thrones? Outlander? Call the Midwife? Whatever it was, I got a lot of knitting done. And now the sleeves match about as perfectly as we will get with Noro.
Here is the front skirt, almost to the waistband, with the two finished sleeves. I just love how the stripe pattern is coming out in this yarn. I like how the two balls stretch out each colour change, while blocks of one ball allow gradients from one colour to another.
I don't even know where I'm going to wear this dress, but it doesn't matter! So long as the baby doesn't make a mess on it, I should be fine. Maybe it'll be too bright, look too crazy. Maybe I should've just bought the Noro Ayatori. Ayatori is on sale now, you could've made the dress for so much cheaper! I had no idea it would go on sale. And I supported my local yarn store instead of cheating and going to WEBS. Like I did with the Takeuma, oops!
