Wallflowers - One Garland Done!

After I took the photo of the in-progress garland yesterday I realized that I had a mistake in the hexagrams with the darkest color as the background.  Instead of grabbing the third popcorn colorway I had used the first.  I had made notes on the garland page to avoid just such an error, but I guess you have to actually pay attention to those notes.  I still have lots of ends to weave in.  I learned the hard way about weaving in ends too early.  Once I weave in the ends it will be on to the second garland.  I’ve already looked ahead to the flowers that fill the holes - downloading the PDFs that go with the videos - but I haven’t watched the videos yet.

Pattern:  Wallflowers by Sue Maton

Yarn:  Rowan Felted Tweed DK

Hook:  3.75 mm (F)

Wallflowers - Garlands Started!

When I finished half of the third colorway of popcorns I went ahead and started assembling a garland with my original background color choices (the bottom garland).  But as you can see, I got part way through and decided that I really didn’t like the background colors, they were just too blah.  So I pulled out my color cards and looked for some colors to jazz things up.  I knew that of the three neutrals I was using I wanted to keep the Mineral and get rid of the Cumin and Camel, so I needed two new colors to replace them.  I decided to go with Rage and Pink Bliss, putting them as my B2 and B3 respectively and shifting the other colors down.  This gives my Iolite in place of Camel and Candy Floss in place of Cumin.  I definitely like the garland better.

Here are my original color choices:

And here are my new color choices:

I ordered more yarn and also got replacement balls to make up for the yarn that I’ve already used.  I did not cannibalize the original garland, and had to make more popcorns to replace the ones that I had used, plus finish the 46 I needed in the third colorway.  All the popcorns are finished, but I did find one that only had 11 popcorns when I was assembling the garland, so I will need to make another one to replace it.

Pattern:  Wallflowers by Sue Maton

Yarn:  Rowan Felted Tweed

Hook:  3.75 mm (F)

 

Wallflowers - Popcorns Started!

My big box of yarn from Fleece and Harmony arrived this past Monday and I have been busy crocheting the first set of popcorns for the garlands.  There are three different color combinations:  F3 & F1, F3 & F4, and F1& F3.  The colors are:  F1 - Ultramarine, F3 - Ciel, and F4 - Heliotrope.  I did one of each color combination just to see how they would all play together and then went into production mode.  I need to make 24 of the F3 & F1 version, 14 of the F3 & F4 version, and 46 of the F1 & F3 version.  I am using a magic ring for the first round as I found the chain 4 joined just a bit too fiddly.  My centers may be a bit more open as a result, but I have the correct dimensions (4.5 cm across).  I ended up using a 3.75 mm hook, although I did also work one with a 4 mm hook.  The result with the 4 mm hook was just a bit too floppy, the 3.75 mm hook gives me nice perky popcorns.  Most of my ends are woven in, but I haven’t woven in the very last end yet.

Pattern:  Wallflowers by Sue Maton

Yarn:  Rowan Felted Tweed

Hook:  3.75 mm (F)

Wallflowers - Colors Chosen!

The other really exciting news is that I have chosen the colors for my Wallflower Blanket and have ordered the yarn.  The Wallflowers Blanket is the creation of Sue Mercer of The Mercerie.  She offers an online course to create this amazing blanket and I signed up for it earlier this year.  The course kicked off on April 1 and runs for six months, although you always have access to the course content (and can even join the live Q&As every month for other course runs).  

I first discovered Sue Maton via the Fruity Knitting video podcast, and then Kim and Betsy on the Fleece and Harmony video podcast signed up a few years ago to the Wallflowers course and I followed their progress and was inspired to sign up when it was offered again.

I ordered a color card from Etsy (it came from a lady in Estonia), and last weekend I sat in natural light and played around with them until I found color combinations that I liked.  I started out with my three darkest colors:  Turquoise, Ultramarine, and Bilberry, and built my color sequences from there.  Once I had my colors I also looked at the color chart and pulled the color combinations for the different pieces to see how the colors would play together.  I went with Sue’s advice and picked colors that give me joy.  The colors are, from left to right:

Leaf colors: Turquoise, Electric Green, and Vaseline Green

Flower colors:  Ultramarine, Iris, Cmiel, Heliotrope, Astor, and Frozen

Background colors:  Bilberry, Peony Iolite, Candy Floss, Cumin, Mineral, and Camel

Hopefully I will get my yarn soon and can start my blanket.

Pattern:  Wallflowers by Sue Maton

Yarn:  Rowan Felted Tweed