If there was a prize for most-petted sample from Knit Play Colour, this cowl would win already. Resonate draws the eye with it’s lines of colour, and then when you touch it you just can’t let go.
I love this yarn because finally I get to have halo without mohair; Fyberspates Cumulus is an alpaca/silk blend. OK, it’s actually a baby Suri alpaca/Mulberry silk blend. It couldn’t be softer and fuzzier. I can only apologise if you can’t do alpaca; I’ll stop waxing lyrical about it now.
Leaving aside my preferred yarn (which is difficult), when it came to testing, this design had the most love. Hands down.
The point of the design is to use a classic lace pattern (no, we’re not quite done with Old Shale) to make fine stripes move curvaceously across a background colour. It’s not about lace – that’s mere mechanics here – it’s about the colours and textures of the stripes. I tried a few options, other than the original set of 3-colour stripes. The testers went to town with their stashes. Choose a background colour you love, and stripe colours you love, and the chances are high you’re going to love the end result!
Make it resonate – with colours that suit you.
In just 2 colours of stripes, and Autumnal colours, this is Sweet Georgia Yarns Silk Mist. I love how easy it is to make great colour combinations in Felicia’s yarn. The palette is extensive and works together so easily. (I have more stripes in Sweet Georgia to share later this week, in fact.)
Autumnal shades in Sweet Georgia Silk Mist
It’s a great scrap-buster, to show off the last bits of colours you love. Some of the test knits made like this are amazing – I hope the knitters will share their projects on Ravelry with you too. Scraps and mini-skeins have a lot in common, being dainty parcels of yarn. This design is the second one in the book of my three solutions to the mini-skeins problem.
I love this version in Eden Cottage Hayton 4ply in Compost, with “Yarnlings” for stripes. Take a lot of the halo away, use a squishy yarn, and the garter lines of colour are more clearly textured too. I am rather obsessed with this Compost colour since it’s the perfect cafe latte. I love cool beiges, not yellowy warm beiges, and this is the right one. It’s perfect with the blue-toned set of Yarnlings, Eden Cottage’s teeny minis, sold like sweets – I want all of these ones prepared for Yarndale, especially the ones in jars!
Soft colours of Eden Cottage, in Hayton 4ply and Yarnlings
But what if you don’t want to mess around with lots of colours? Let the yarn do the work. I had this amazing skein of Must Stash Luxe in Coral Reef, in bright orange, fuchsia, turquoise and gold. But what to do with it? I’ve used this vibrant yarn before on its own for Knit Me. The colours are in long-ish sections, so I wanted to see little lines of this, not muted as much as the flecks in a Yarn Tamer. It’s set off perfectly with a skein of The Knitting Goddess Brit Sock in Semi Solid Black, which is really a charcoal grey with purplish undertones. So although Resonate isn’t intended as a yarn-taming pattern, it can do a similar job with a bright yarn.
Choose a bold yarn and let it do the colour work.
The pattern is called Resonate because it’s about waves of colour rippling along, separated by a plain background. The spacing with the background colour means that colours don’t have to be perfect friends, which makes it even easier and more fun to personalize. Colours can resonate with each other, not clash.
How would you make your project Resonate with colour? How many colours? Scraps? Carefully chosen in store or at a show? The perfect chance to play with a favourite yarn?
INSPIRATION KNITS 