Seasonally Appropriate-ish

Now that I hang this finished thing in the back garden to show it to you, I can see that I was wrong about it. (I am physically distanced from all the World’s Top Knitwear models at the moment. I guess I could ask Joe to do it, but I know exactly how it ends and choose not to go there. For two people who’ve been locked down together for eleven weeks we’re getting along just fine, and part of that is that we try really hard to care about the things the other person is interested in and in return, don’t ask the other person to have to pretend too often.)

Shawl: True Colors Yarn: Fiber Optic Kashmir 6-pack in Spice, along with a skein in the natural grey.  (Edited to add: Thanks to everyone in the comments who tipped me off that I’d forgotten to link to the pattern – there you go!)

While I was knitting the last little bit of this one, it seemed to me rather hopelessly autumnal and it didn’t scratch the itch of spring fever that I had.  I was looking to embrace summer with my knitting, bright colours, hope and joy – it didn’t speak to me of flowers and warmth and water. (To be fair, not much in my stash does.) Now that it’s done though?

Doesn’t it just.  I love it.  I think it’s just so pretty, and I believe I’ve got that little jolt of bright acid springtime yellow to thank for it.  It’s exactly the colour of new leaves, and that ruby red is like the red of ranunculus or sweet peas.  I’m entirely smitten.  I admit, it hurts just a little to finish something so cozy as it gets truly hot around here, and I am rather short of places to wear it,  but I have hopefully hung it near the back door, ready in case there is a cool evening.

Still hungry for summer colours, a rampage through the stash turned up this kit, and I started to feel like I had the hang of this season. Summery – right? I’m getting the hang of this.  I’m out of my box.

Yarn: some antique (and sadly discontinued) Schaefer Heather (in bluebell) Pattern: Undulating Waves.

Don’t those little beads remind you of water trickling through a stream on a day with bright blue skies? Of forget-me-nots and rhododendrons…

It is a shame then that I dropped it like a hot rock when yarn came from Lichen and Lace (the used-to-was owner of the famed Lettuce Knit here in Toronto, now turned dyer extraordinaire in New Brunswick.)

They’re beautiful to be sure – but I opened the package and was disappointed for a second, wondering if I was retreating to my typical fall colours. (That’s 1-ply merino in “woods” and Marsh Mohair in “Shrub”)  I wondered if I was really any good this spring and summer knitting thing, and then I laid the little beginnings of my sweater in the heuchera by the door for a photo, and look.

It’s a summer Love Note after all. (Literally.  Now that the whole rest of the world is finished knitting that sweater I might as well make one. Nothing says Toronto heat wave like mohair!)

59 thoughts on “Seasonally Appropriate-ish

  1. If you love a certain range of colours I think it can work in any season. Especially green, my own personal favourite. Those are all lovely!

  2. I just finished my Love Note, so you are not alone. Now it is too hot to wear it, but I’m hoping for a foggy day so that I can give it a spin.

  3. Oh my what a beautiful shawl! The colours are your colours, I believe. I think we gravitate toward our favorites. LOL Your sweater will be amazing too! And again, Stephanie colours. 🙂 I love the blue with the beads, and agree that it looks like the beautiful river here in Welland when it’s clear and not muddy. 🙂 I have been coveting some yarn from Lichen and Lace. I’ve saved it and admired it and just love it. My colours, of course. I do not need yarn. I do not need yarn. Yeah, but it’s so beautiful!!!

  4. Swimming-pool blue is definitely a summer color. The shawl and the new yarn are not. They are more lively than charcoal gray, but not much. Maybe you should have listened to that inner voice craving shades of carnation, violet, watermelon, daffodil, lime, flamingo, lilac, etc. Especially before Joe asks for another pair of black socks … or another gansey!

  5. The first shawl, the undulating grey like the edge of the ocean waves plus red yellow orange makes me think of a beach umbrella . So very seasonally appropriate!

  6. oh my.The ‘true colors’ looks like popsicles or sorbet. how happy lovely. I’m sure there will be a cool evening’s use. the blue and beads cooled my feet right now – just as if i’d stopped on a hike and put bare feet into a stream. Love Note will be another luscious creation.
    thank you for sharing!

  7. Feeling my hair actively curling up shorter in the humidity used to trigger the urge to knit huge, multistrsnded Kaffe Fassett coats back in the day. I get you.

  8. Both knits are beautiful colors. Your knitting is also inspiring. I am grieving the loss of a child and knitting and quilting are getting me through it. It calms the soul.

  9. You have blue rhododendrons in Canada? Never seen one. Love the blue yarn but would like it in a plant too! Color preference are individual – look at someones closet to see what they feel good in and likely they will surround themselves with those same colors in their home or office. So while you live in and like fall colors, others like something else. Variety is the spice of life and we definitely need some spice around here!

    • I’ve heard that if you want your rhododendrons to be blue, you can stick big nails in the ground all around them. The idea is that the iron gets into the plant and turns the blossoms blue. I don’t know whether this actually works but you can Google other solutions. I’ve planted rhododendrons in one color and had them change over time, so it definitely depends on the soil.

        • it’s about soil pH–very solid evidence, but sometimes hard to amend enough to make a difference when yow’re talking about a large plant that’s in the ground rather than in a pot…

      • It is hydrangeas, not rhododendrons, that change color with the pH of the soil. Here in Rhode Island the soil is acidic and the hydrangeas are blue. In places where the soil is more alkaline, they will be pink. You can acidify the soil by amending with sulfur, or raise the pH by amending with lime/ calcium. This will supposedly change the color of the rhodys, but I’ve never tried it cuz I like them blue!

  10. I knit part of my love note in a Toronto heat wave during a visit last summer. I wasn’t that bad (and the results are fabulous!).

  11. All are just beautiful colors and the beads on the Undulating Waves are really evocative of a cool creek on burbling along on a hot summer day. I’m dreaming, though, because it’s raining here and true summer won’t hit until July. Until then we’ll get a day here and there of sun amid mostly gun metal skies. The Pacific Northwest — home of moss and skunk cabbage.

  12. If it makes you feel any better, I have not made a Love Note yet, even though I’ve been drooling over it since it was released.

  13. Love them both! Our temperature (southeast Michigan) is like a yo yo. With temperature swings like a moody adolescent. Your shawl would totally work here.

  14. I’m thinking Florida summer looks very different from Canada summer! That blue, though. I may have to find something in that blue to work on.

  15. Thanks for the pointer to Love Notes. My oldest grandgirl will be 12 in October and she’d like “a more grown up sweater” this year (because “I’m going to be in Middle School, grandma.”). I can’t do wool, because Daddy still does laundry and doesn’t get wool… But I think I can find something washable to do this in… I suppose I should first make sure it’s “grown up” enough for a 12 year old, however.
    I’m doing 2 shawls for weddings next summer. One in merino/silk and one in bamboo… both are cream. Lots and lots of cream. I’m really tired of cream. I’m thinking of ordering some blanks and doing bright bright crayola colors in sock yarn and working on rainbow socks for my godchildren for Christmas… all of them would appreciate it.

  16. It’s supposed to cool off tonight. Keep that lovely shawl handy. Love the blue, but then most of the sweaters I own are blue. Take care, you are amazing!

  17. In The Mother’s Almanac, there’s a line that says something like, at times, the only two things that hold a marriage together are sex and good manners. I’ve never forgotten that!

  18. Waiting for yarn for my Love Note to arrive. It is hot here in Chicago too, but it will be ready for fall. I also have yarn ready and waiting for True Colors. I’d better get knitting.

  19. All the colours are beautiful, and with the radical switch in weather today you are all set to weather the extreme wind and rain. And hey, if we’re swatching for socks that we won’t be wearing for the next 4 months, then you can certainly knit something you might not have much use for! 🙂

  20. Surely I’m not the only one who looks at the shawl and thinks of marigolds? Perhaps it’s because I’ve just planted and am tending mine. But it’s lovely nonetheless, and I’m sure you’ll have an occasion to wear it. Even in the summer there are those moments when a storm sweeps through and leaves a chill in its wake.

  21. Melanie really does have the coolest shawl patterns. Always the perfect balance between mindless sections and more attention needed sections. I am just about to finish La Crau that would pair perfectly with my Rhinebeck sweater. Sadly I don’t think either will debut there.

  22. OK, you had me at little drops of water. I am intrigued with that blue bead knitting combo. Does The Pattern call for the use of that string of beads? Or is that your own spin on it? Trying to figure out how it works…

  23. Gorgeous, all of it. Fern lace in heuchera colors–can’t wait to see the rest of it. Thank you for putting a name to that plant that I’d never had a name for before. I’d like to plant some of those.

  24. I adore all 3 knits. The shawl is definitely marigolds, which I love. I’m a sucker for yellow any day..I love your colour choices. And when it’s cold, you’ll have something new to reach for.

  25. The shawl is totally summer! I’m not usually a fan of yellow, but wow – I love this! (Also, there’s a spam comment for Canadian viagra right above my comment. Is Canadian viagra different from the US version?)

  26. Hot summer means there will be INDOOR AIR CONDITIONING, esp at events or in restaurants, which absolutely does require a warm wrap right in the middle of a Canadian heat wave!! =)

  27. Gorgeous knitwear, as always.
    But, on a different note – you said (some blogposts back, you were going to go on Patreon. Did you do that? I haven’t done Patreon before and am totally befuddled as to how to search their site to find you (if you are there).
    Could you address the issue one of these days, please?

  28. “We try really hard to care about the things the other person is interested in and in return, don’t ask the other person to have to pretend too often.” Exactly! I think that’s why my marriage has lasted 24 years and counting. If only my son could grasp this concept and stop asking me to watch him play video games every. single. day. (Or worse, actually play video games with him.)

  29. Those colors are very spring like. Those are the colors that are prevalent when trees begin to bud and the leaves come out

  30. Oh, that beautiful blue yarn, the perfect beads and a pattern written for both — I’m in tears (could be the lack of sleep) and fallen down the rabbit hole to see if anyone will part with the yarn from stash.

    The “good” ones discontinue far too soon.

  31. Since you said it was a spring shawl my eye just flew to the yellow. If you had said it was an autumn shawl I would have zeroed in on the orange. The Gray speaks for winter and the warm colors in general call to minde summer, so I guess it is a shawl for all seasons. Most importantly to me it is a shawl that looks good on You. I am just itching to knit with mohair.

  32. Happy birthday Stephanie. I hope your day is everything you are wishing for.

    And I think the shawl colours remind me of zinnias. So beautiful!
    Chris S

    “Touch the envelope – how appropriate. It contains birthday wishes!”

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