Friday, January 21, 2011

Something Old Something New

The first thing I ever knit was a sweater. I was taking an introductory class at the Yarn Barn in Lawrence, KS and they let us pick anything we wanted. Instead of the usual potholder or scarf sort of thing, I decided I wanted to jump right in with both feet.

I chose a pattern by Rowan from one of their very early books, #6 I think. For the yarn I decided on Brown Sheep's Lamb Pride Bulky in Cream. Then I got busy. At the time I was a rep for a college textbook company and it was summer, so I didn't have to work much. I spent hours and hours every day becoming quite addicted to the knitting.

By the time the class was over, I had knit that sweater and had moved onto another. I still have my first sweater. I pull it out every year when the weather gets really really cold. It's a little out of date, it's boxy with drop sleeves, but I love it anyway.

As I mentioned, that sweater started out life as color number M10 Cream. Somewhere along the line I spilled something down the front of it and I decided to dye it. At that point in time, the only dye I'd ever heard of was Rit. So I marched down to the grocery store and picked up some of their Red. I wanted it to be really dark, so I doubled the recipe.

This salmon pink wasn't quite what I thought I was going to get from double strength red, but I've loved it this way for a long time.













I think it's time to reinvent this sweater. But I'm not quite sure what color it wants to be next. I could certainly do that dark red. I'm more adept at dyeing these days. (Go figure.) Or maybe purple? Brown? There are so many choices.

Help me out folks! What color should my first sweater be next?
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15 comments:

  1. JulieJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    Definitely purple!!

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  2. CarlaJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    It wants to be a nice, rich shade of purple. It told me so. LOL Very few yarn lines have lots of grape purple colors. You'd be surprised how many of us purple fanatics are out there. I think this sweater would look lovely in purple, violet, grape, aubergine, you name it. . . as long as it's purple! :)

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  3. MaryJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:17 PM

    I agree - PURPLE!

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  4. BeckaJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:27 PM

    I am going to be the odd one out and suggest deep rust orange. I love orange.

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  5. KarenJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    It cracks me up that you once only knew from Rit. The Universe is an amusing place.

    p.s. I'm thinkin' Burgundy, or a fine Pinot.
    (But Becka had me at orange. They say it's going to be very on trend this season!)

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 5:59 PM

    I'm partial to red or purple.but I'm old enough to be one of the Red Hat Ladies.

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  7. marianneJanuary 21, 2011 at 6:01 PM

    this sweater still has high hopes of achieving its lifelong dream of being a deep, rich red! ;)

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  8. knitalatteJanuary 21, 2011 at 6:51 PM

    Purple please...

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  9. rudioJanuary 21, 2011 at 7:50 PM

    Deep Dark Delicious Eggplant. You can even slide it into a Dark Plummy Red.
    I'd love to see it in it's next Skin.

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  10. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 8:07 PM

    I vote for burgundy

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  11. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2011 at 5:53 AM

    RED RED RED RED RED - DEEP DARK RICH RED!

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  12. GinkgoKnitsJanuary 22, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    Dark red, purple, or brown are all great choices to me. If I were trying this, I'd want to see if I could paint on the dye so I could leave a salmon image on the front. I'd do a simple reverse stencil of a flower with brown but it could be words or a favorite animal depending on you preferences. It could even say "I make pretty string" although your font would make that tricky. Sounds like a wonderful first project experience (and result) no matter what its next incarnation.

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  13. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2011 at 9:17 PM

    I like the idea of red violet...might please everyone....or no one

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  14. fairy godmotherJanuary 25, 2011 at 5:57 AM

    I am a sucker for a deep, chocolate brown.

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  15. SamIamJanuary 25, 2011 at 4:10 PM

    Eggplant purple - defiknitly! Purple so IN right now :)

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