What the Fade Complete!

At the start of this year, I cast on for something entirely selfish- a shawl by Andrea Mowry called What The Fade.  I was lucky to take a class with her last year at KnitCity, where she taught about colour confidence- and various techniques for blending and combining colours and even textures into our knitting patterns.  It was eye opening, intriguing on many levels- especially for one such as myself who usually plays it safe with greys...

It took me a few months to decide on a palette- I stalked the projects on Ravelry to see what I liked/didn't like.  The ones I was drawn to the most were mostly neutrals, with a higher contrast "A" colour.  So first thing- stash-diving.  I found my skein of Sweet Georgia in Ultraviolet- an incredible deep rich ridiculously beautiful shade of purple.  Hits of blue in there- it's a stunner for sure.  This was the only yarn that never changed in any of my line ups.  At this point I had no Hedgehog, or speckled yarns in my collection other than what I'd dyed myself and those were into greens/blues and wouldn't work.  Between some misses ordering online and finally some sweet scores in person (found the Baah Yarns in LA on a work trip, and the Hedgehog at local shops) I had what I thought might work.  It was a little stressful at first- that initial committment- because it really is an investment of time, and money- because we all know good yarn ain't cheap. This is where I was at- my line up in all it's glory.  I pondered over this for several days before I had the courage to cast on and just go for it.

As soon as I cast on with the first two colours- I was in love.  A little wary still, but in love.  As I worked through the brioche section I didn't know if I had enough contrast between some yarns, or too much between others.  At a certain point I just let go, figured- this will be what it will be.  And I ended up with something I love more than anything else I've knit.


I took a million photos, managed to limit myself to 20 or so over on Ravelry.  No touch ups or filters needed- this thing is pure heaven.  I still haven't blocked it and I'm not sure I even will.  Stitches look even and great- and while the garter section is more structured than the brioche, I love how dense and warm it is.  I don't want it to grow too much as it's truly a great size and I suspect even with a steam it's going to get bigger.  I'll cross that road when I need to wash it- till then it's perfect as it is.

I learned a few things about myself while I knit this- sometimes you have to give in and just trust yourself, your eye and what you're drawn to.  I greatly increased my knitting speed with those long garter rows.  It's been a really long time since I've done straight garter- and this certainly has a lot of it.  It's perfect amount of brioche- there's only 2 kinds of increases, so this is a perfect first brioche project for those starting out- and nice easy brioche for those who might be getting re-acquainted like myself.  

 

 I LOVE this shawl!