Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Nom de Plume; Or, How I Like Palette

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Pattern: Nom de Plume - Leggies
download now
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette (Cream - 2, Suede - 1, Brindle Heather - 1, Doe - 1, Camel Heather - 1, Bark - 1)
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I really love the look of swatches of colour. I have, indeed, since I was a very wee one. I can recall tagging along with my dad to the hardware store, gleefully claiming various bright and tempting paint sample cards for my very own.

The same impulse takes over every time my new KnitPicks catalogue arrives. Hooray! I think.

I mean, mostly, the colours and yarns stay the same, but oh, the swatches! The hues! The Palette!

And so, I have a bit of a Palette collection - not every colour, certainly, but many. Probably more than I'll use any year soon. But my big plans most recently included creating peacock feather inspired knits using the same intarsia chart, but with different colour schemes.

First came the cream/natural shaded leggings.

They mostly turned out how I wanted - though I was disappointed by their lack of willingness to stay up.
The remedy came in the form of some savvy ribbon usage, threaded along the inside top ribbing.

PhotobucketI knew I also wanted a more true peacock-esque scheme, and tried that one out on the arm warmers.

Pattern: Nom de Plume - Arm Warmers
download now
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette
(one each of Black, Suede, Cornmeal, Teal and Navy)

These ones, one the other hand, turned out just as imagined. As per usual, I'm too lazy to add thumbs to the armwarmer tube itself, and instead just left some cast off stitches as an opening.

I tried to plan out the colour placement based on the KnitPicks site. Dicey, I know.
And verily, mistake I did make.
There's supposed to be a third colour surrounding the central "eye" of the feather. But the yarn I chose for that purpose, Pool, clashed something awful, and was thus axed from the knit.
Photobucket You can see the missing part much better on this close up.

I'm planning on publishing the chart, and if anyone wishes, I could give the pattern(s) a go as well.

I'm also hoping that some day I push myself to make the fiery orange ones and soothingly green ones that I've sketched out in the numerous balls of Palette still sitting patiently in the yarn city that is my cedar chest.

But for now, I'm off to knit on my new knitty crush - the sock yarn sweater.
More to come on that one soon!

11 comments:

orata said...

Gorgeous! I love the legwarmers espeecially.

Erin Heather said...

Absolutely beautiful.

Ellen said...

These are fantastic! The leggies are ultra-cute. Can't wait to hear more on the sweater!

Team Knit said...

Stunning!! Love the leg warmers, love the armwarmers. What a brilliant idea!! They turned out great.

- Julie

evergreenknits said...

Wow! I especially like the legwarmers -- I think the peacock feathers really pop when they have a larger background behind them.


They are really fantastic. I might have to try some myself!

Leah said...

I never thought peacock feathers would look so beautiful in brown. That's gorgeous.

alittlebitofscrap said...

OMG! I'm in love!! Did you create a chart? Just gorgeous :)

Anonymous said...

Those are lovely!

Hilary said...

Awesome. Just awesome. I am extremely impressed by your chart-making skillz...that's a great peacock feather! I love both the legwarmers and the armwarmers...are you ever tempted to wear them together?? :)

Barbara from Nova Scotia said...

Lovely leggies! Excellent colours.

the moonlight seedling said...

Ooh, SQUEE, I want the charts/pattern! Please! I love peacock feathers, this would be an awesome set for my Burning Man wardrobe this year!