Queen Anne Cherries

I was looking at my WIP's yesterday and realized I have become a Knit Picks addict. Most of my projects currently on the needles are worked with Knit Picks yarn...but as far as I am concerned, they have outdone themselves with their new line of tonal hand-dyed yarns. I must confess, though it will probably make me a "bad handknitter," that I kind of hate multicolored varigated yarns. Actually, I shouldn't hedge that (something I am working on in general, actually--hedging). I HATE multicolored varigated yarns. I have used them, but only once have I been able to keep it from pooling. It might be the perfectionist in me...I don't like not being able to control the look of the finished object.

However, it is so fun to see the different colors slide through my fingers and work into stitches, combining different ways as I knit. Once I discovered semi-solid yarns, I could have most of the fun of a varigated, with a MUCH more subtle final result. Here is one of my older projects, made with a hand-dyed semi-solid:


Up to now, I have only had monochromatic semi-solids to choose from, but Knit Picks did something brilliant, I tell you. They used several shades from one little wedge of the color wheel, ie. from yellow-green to blue-green, to make a tonal yarn. I bought one called Queen Anne, inspired by the Queen Anne cherry, to make a pair of socks.

They took tones from golden through salmon pink to make the most beautiful yarn I have ever seen! I can not get a photo to do it justice. I will be making Froot Loop by Kristi Geraci--I think it will show the hand-dyed tonal yarn to perfection! (Pattern photo below).

And the colors in the yarn even remind me of Froot Loops. The whole thing just makes me happy! I imagine this will be a long term WIP...something I work on in little bits here and there when I need to be cheered up, but here is my starting-line photo. Isn't that yarn gorgeous??