In spite of my love of knitting, winter is far from my favorite season.
I'm simply not a cold weather person, and in recent years, our winters have often been exceptionally cold, gloomy and overcast. Add in the short days and long nights, and the result is the consummate definition of dark and dreary.
The perfect antidote, of course, is vibrant color in all its forms from bright and bold to rich and gemlike. This means my cold-weather knitting tends to be filled with saturated shades of red, rose, plum, purple, turquoise, teal and gold.
This winter, instead of intense color I've been craving neutrals from black and charcoal to stone and cream. Weird, right? Especially so, since our perpetually grey winter skies make wearing neutrals the next-best thing to dressing in camouflage.
Nonetheless, in the weeks before Christmas, I was motivated to make a quick pair of luxuriously soft and cozy mitts (Kintra Nearly Neutral):
And created Lucben swatches to test both the stitch and gauge in different yarn weights:
In early January, I finished a light and lofty afghan (Tikkyn Flagstone):
And cast on a warm, woolly sideways shawl:
Then I fell off the focus-and-finish bandwagon and accidentally cast on a pair of mitts to coordinate with the shawl. Between the worsted weight yarn and largish needles, I'm hoping they'll work up fast:
This recent flurry of neutrals didn't catch my attention until I was doing the Seeing Red roundup and noticed this emerging trend. With the sole exception of colorful Christmas Trees, every item cast on since early December has been predominantly neutral accompanied by brief flashes of burgundy or red.
Through the years, cool neutrals have anchored countless projects (Drumlin Almost Neutral and multiple pairs of Kintra and Wyndfael mitts), but this is the first time I can recall such an uninterrupted stream.
How long will this grey streak last? That remains to be seen, but since half my active WIPs feature grey, clearly it's far from over.
Connecting with the linkups in the sidebar.
I'm simply not a cold weather person, and in recent years, our winters have often been exceptionally cold, gloomy and overcast. Add in the short days and long nights, and the result is the consummate definition of dark and dreary.
The perfect antidote, of course, is vibrant color in all its forms from bright and bold to rich and gemlike. This means my cold-weather knitting tends to be filled with saturated shades of red, rose, plum, purple, turquoise, teal and gold.
This winter, instead of intense color I've been craving neutrals from black and charcoal to stone and cream. Weird, right? Especially so, since our perpetually grey winter skies make wearing neutrals the next-best thing to dressing in camouflage.
Nonetheless, in the weeks before Christmas, I was motivated to make a quick pair of luxuriously soft and cozy mitts (Kintra Nearly Neutral):
And created Lucben swatches to test both the stitch and gauge in different yarn weights:
In early January, I finished a light and lofty afghan (Tikkyn Flagstone):
And cast on a warm, woolly sideways shawl:
Then I fell off the focus-and-finish bandwagon and accidentally cast on a pair of mitts to coordinate with the shawl. Between the worsted weight yarn and largish needles, I'm hoping they'll work up fast:
This recent flurry of neutrals didn't catch my attention until I was doing the Seeing Red roundup and noticed this emerging trend. With the sole exception of colorful Christmas Trees, every item cast on since early December has been predominantly neutral accompanied by brief flashes of burgundy or red.
Through the years, cool neutrals have anchored countless projects (Drumlin Almost Neutral and multiple pairs of Kintra and Wyndfael mitts), but this is the first time I can recall such an uninterrupted stream.
How long will this grey streak last? That remains to be seen, but since half my active WIPs feature grey, clearly it's far from over.
Connecting with the linkups in the sidebar.
i like winter and it's somewhat "approval" to hibernate & knit!! i like gray for it's neutralness, it looks good with many colors!!!
ReplyDeleteHibernating to knit is absolutely my favorite thing about winter :) And you're right, grey is so versatile because it goes with everything.
DeleteAs a former Ohioan I understand your dislike of winter! But those mitts and that afghan look like wonderful antidotes. (Also, forgive me, but I giggled at your "accidental" casting on of a pair of mitts to match your shawl. :D )
ReplyDeleteFrom grey winters to accidental cast-ons, you do indeed get it ;)
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