Ghosts of Afghans Past
Feb. 2nd, 2015 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydyLike everyone, ever, who dabbles in knit and crochet, I have acquired a large number of odds and ends of yarn from projects. Sometimes, it's the result of an over-buy, but often, it's the tail end of a skein. After a while, they start to occupy a lot of space. There's an entire genre of garbage or remnant afghans, afghans made from scraps of left-over yarn. I've seen several patterns designed for this, but haven't liked any of them. On the other hand, I noticed when I made my first in the current series of afghans that the pineapples, as individual units, didn't take a lot of yarn. I made a mental note to try that pattern for a remnant afghan once I had enough remnants to want to get rid of them.
I don't usually work in a lot of colors. My color sense is unreliable. It is, I think, getting better, but it's not really my gift. However, in this case, since I was working with so many colors, it seemed like I could get away with the occasional infelicitous combination. Either it would be overwhelmed by the riot of color, or maybe even look like I was trying to tell a silly joke with the color. I tried hard to randomize the colors so that there wasn't a clear pattern. When I worked it up, I had compared the color both to the pineapple to which it was being attached, and the ones that it would be adjacent to, as well as trying to keep an eye out for larger trends and patterns. I was, I think, somewhat successful.
I really like the Butter color of Michael's Loops and Threads Soft and Shiny yarn, so I decided to use that for the inside border and the black of the same brand for the outside border of each of the strips. Alas, I underestimated how much butter colored yarn I would need, and overestimated how much I had in my stash. And, of course, the color has been discontinued. Eventually, I contacted several people on Ravelry who listed that yarn in their stash, offering to buy it at twice the list price, plus shipping. Two different people kindly responded, and sold me the yarn I needed to complete the afghan. So, yes, I spent $30 on yarn to complete a remnant afghan. Irony, much?
Since this was an experiment, and I was unsure how the colors were going to work, I did this on spec. When I was about a third of the way through, Eric Forste admitted to an admiration of it, so I gave it to him. Well, will give it to him. He's been using it when he was at my house, but I haven't let him take it home, yet, since I needed pictures of it. Now there are pictures, so he can cart it off to his lair. And since there are pictures, you can see it, too! (Thank you, David, for the pictures.)
What do you think?
And, of course, one featuring Ninja, who is also Eric's favorite cat at our house. (I don't have a picture of Ninja riding on Eric's shoulders while he makes coffee in the morning, but I wish I did, because it's about the cutest thing, ever.)
I don't usually work in a lot of colors. My color sense is unreliable. It is, I think, getting better, but it's not really my gift. However, in this case, since I was working with so many colors, it seemed like I could get away with the occasional infelicitous combination. Either it would be overwhelmed by the riot of color, or maybe even look like I was trying to tell a silly joke with the color. I tried hard to randomize the colors so that there wasn't a clear pattern. When I worked it up, I had compared the color both to the pineapple to which it was being attached, and the ones that it would be adjacent to, as well as trying to keep an eye out for larger trends and patterns. I was, I think, somewhat successful.
I really like the Butter color of Michael's Loops and Threads Soft and Shiny yarn, so I decided to use that for the inside border and the black of the same brand for the outside border of each of the strips. Alas, I underestimated how much butter colored yarn I would need, and overestimated how much I had in my stash. And, of course, the color has been discontinued. Eventually, I contacted several people on Ravelry who listed that yarn in their stash, offering to buy it at twice the list price, plus shipping. Two different people kindly responded, and sold me the yarn I needed to complete the afghan. So, yes, I spent $30 on yarn to complete a remnant afghan. Irony, much?
Since this was an experiment, and I was unsure how the colors were going to work, I did this on spec. When I was about a third of the way through, Eric Forste admitted to an admiration of it, so I gave it to him. Well, will give it to him. He's been using it when he was at my house, but I haven't let him take it home, yet, since I needed pictures of it. Now there are pictures, so he can cart it off to his lair. And since there are pictures, you can see it, too! (Thank you, David, for the pictures.)
What do you think?
And, of course, one featuring Ninja, who is also Eric's favorite cat at our house. (I don't have a picture of Ninja riding on Eric's shoulders while he makes coffee in the morning, but I wish I did, because it's about the cutest thing, ever.)
