So the Ashburn KAL is underway. Knitters have started to choose their yarn colours and cast on. I had a LOT of trouble deciding on colours.
I think my first colour problem was being so distracted by colours used in the pattern pictures. The peacock blue and toffee brown with the pale grey are just stunning. With the knit along running in Autumn, they seemed like such good choices for the season and I was ready to just go with the colours in the pattern.
After a bit of thought I changed my mind. I never wear brown, and although the toffee colour is lovely, it wouldn’t go with any of my clothes
About a year ago I “did” my colours. I sat down and spent some time really thinking about what colours suited me and would work together too. I wanted to have a big wardrobe clear out and stop buying things that didn’t go with anything I already owned. After some research and though, I came up with the palette shown here.
Given I’d spent the time and effort to develop a wardrobe pallet guide, it seemed silly to ignore it, so I chose my colours for the Ashburn shawl from here.
With my colour palette in mind, I decided to vary the pattern colours a bit to suit me – while sticking with Autumn feeling of the original.
I dyed my own yarn for this project. I want to be able to wear my shawl at the Handknitters Guild Market in Coburg next month, so it made sense to dye up some colours that I’d have for sale on the day. The yarn base is Sandhurst Merino 4ply. The colours (from left to right) are Mister Fox, Winter and Jewel Beetle.
I’m really happy with the results. The colours fit with my palette and will go with the grey and black that I tend to wear a lot of in Winter. I think they’ll be popular at the market too, so I’ll dye some up for my stall.
The only colour consideration left was which order the colours should be on the shawl. I wanted the grey in the middle so it could provide an effective background to the slipped stitches of the other colours, so the choice was between the orange and green. After some thought I went with green because I think it’s a more flattering colour for me to have closest to my face.
So now I’m ready to cast on. I’ve decided to check gauge once I knitted a few inches of the shawl rather than doing a separate gauge swatch. Although the pattern calls for 4mm needles, I’m going with 3.75mm. I tend to knit just a little bit loosely so its a sensible adjustment to make straight off.
The knit along pictures that have been posted on Instagram so far are great. I love seeing people’s colour and yarn choices. I can’t wait to see how they all progress.
