Friday, March 1, 2013

Rainbow Roundup

My wife and I love rainbows. You probably could have guessed that from the rainbow colors at our wedding and our matching rainbow heart tattoos. Yes, it's partly the gay thing. But, it also has a lot to do with being born in the 80's. Our brains were saturated with ROYGBIV related color schemes from a young age, so there's a certain nostalgia factor. Plus, rainbows go with everything because they have all the colors in them!! Yay!


I got an urge to knit something rainbow-y for Lynn before the wedding, but there was that whole thing where I barely knit at all last year. And the thing where I proposed in July and we had the wedding in September, 77 days later- a tight deadline even for someone making contact with yarn on a regular basis. Still, I am not well known for my sense of what can reasonably be accomplished, so I dreamed big. Specifically, I was thinking of a Mitered Cross Blanket knit with Kauni Effektgarn Wool 8/2, a scratchy sport weight wool, in EQ. It's a self-striping rainbow colorway with l-o-n-g stretches of color, which I was hoping would pair up nicely with some neutral color to produce something like this example. I even bought the pattern and cast on, but thankfully doing two rows of miters on size 4 needles was enough to snap me back to reality. 

The rainbowl Kauni waited patiently until last month, when I experienced a Perfect Knitting Storm:

1) My wife said magical words- "You know, you haven't knit anything for me since we started dating!" 
2) BFF Allison gifted me with a beautiful Wurm hat for my birthday in the first week of Februrary.  I am convinced that it makes me look sophisticated, tough and European- a fat Lisbeth Salander. I can't show you a picture because I can't bear to have anyone tell me this is not the case.
3) Lynn admired the Wurm, and looking at other Ravelers' projects, I realized that Kauni was a viable option. She loves rainbows and seemingly has no sensitivity to less soft wools. Pefect.

And thus, Rainbow Ridges was made. 



My worry was that the color repeats would be so long that all the colors of the rainbow wouldn't fit on the hat. The pattern calls for 10 ridges, but I decided that I would keep knitting to the end of the spectrum, no matter what. For a while I was feeling pretty hopeful that I would only have to add one extra ridge, but I ended up with 14 ridges and a hat that vaguely resembles a windsock. Lynn says she can use the extra room at the top for storage, so I guess it's okay. Now my wife has hat with a little rainbow magic in it, and I have the satisfaction of seeing my knitting on someone who really appreciates my woolly expressions of love.

I was a little sad to see the end of the hat, but there's plenty of rainbows where that came from. This cute little sweater made my heart go pitter-pat. There may be some Rainbow Earrings in my future. Or maybe some of these fingerless gloves with Rainbow Fingers! (Another good use for Kauni, I think.) Hopefully, my knitting life will be pleasantly punctuated with these happy colors for a long time to come.

1 comment:

  1. I know that this is what REALLY inspired your love of rainbows: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_i-MAMTzWfeM/S7KJOoquffI/AAAAAAAABx0/KYb2S2EB0Wg/s1600/Mork-Mindy.jpg

    I love the hat! And I hope you can make it to knit night again soon.

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