Welcome to the weekend!

Thanks to everyone who viewed the color handling tutorial last weekend. If anyone else would like to skip past the intro and jump right into the tutorial, the highlighted video can be accessed here.

Work has kept me busy this week, so this letter will be short, but I found time to cast on a new project—well, a new/old project.

Five years ago, I tore apart a hand-dyed braid of fiber for the first time, so that I could use the colors to make a gradient. Then, I did it again. One was a 4-ply, and one was a chain-ply.

The 4-ply became an Esker scarf.

And the chain-ply became a Fale cowl.

Both became gifts that were a joy to give and well received, and then I moved on. I've worked with gradients in many forms over the years, but I didn't revisit these patterns until recently.

After finishing Knit Spin Farm's "Not Cotton Candy. Do Not Eat." colorway and chain plying it, I stopped to think about what I could make with it. At roughly 85 grams and just under 300 yards, it's not enough for many of my patterns, and it's honestly not enough to knit Fale as written. However, Fale is a pretty long cowl, so I decided to start and see where it ends. If it's stubby and short, I'll keep it for myself. If it's substantial enough, it will go into the shop.

All I know so far is that a) it's pretty, and b) it's good airplane knitting.

For a long time, I didn't really "do" repeat projects. To some extent, I still feel as though I should find a new pattern in my library and make that, rather than repeat an older project. Recently I've come to realize that I'm limiting myself by doing this, because there are some truly classic patterns out there that are well-suited for gradient yarns. Why not repeat them? Each project looks entirely different with a new yarn, especially if it's handspun.

Imagine a plain stockinette sweater. The world is your oyster when it comes to color choices, ad lib design choices, stripes, etc. Plain stockinette isn't a boring choice, it's a classic choice that allows you to play with color without an intricate pattern getting lost in the yarn! Everything this year seems to be coming back to that notion of letting the yarn do the work, and I'm not mad about it.

I also plan to revisit Esker as well, with another handspun gradient—possibly the one I'm spinning for Tour de Fleece.

Regardless, I'll keep you posted right here.

Have a great weekend and, until next time, take care!

🌳Liz

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