Thursday, January 10, 2008

klaralund rationalized through space dyeing


Why oh why did I decide to knit the Klaralund, a design that will probably look horrible on me? And uses variegated yarn, which I generally don't like much? And uses variegated yarn in a color that looks like bird doo? (See previous post for more details.)

  • I thought the Klaralund would be a more interesting use of lace weight yarn than the Clapotis for which it was originally intended.
  • The Klaralund is a clever design and shape, reminiscent of the Einstein Coat. The vee neck, back and front, might be flattering.
  • I would rather have another Clap in shades of brown than the Grape Hyacynth colorway of the Knit Picks Shimmer. Even though purple and green is my favorite color combo, the shades of this grouping look like, I repeat, bird doo. So who cares what I do with it?
  • The yarn is wonderful to the touch. I want to have it wrapped around my body.
What stands out the most about this knitting venture however, are the words Space Dyed. I love retro looks, and I remember that in the 1970s space dyed sweaters were in fashion. This photo is of a current design (from a company called Stacia), but it has the look of the 70s style of sweater surface design. Using 2 strands of the lace weight Shimmer together breaks up the stripes into a similarly speckly space dyed look. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, it looks even more that way on the reverse stockinette (or wrong) side.

So this is essentially a design venture to see if the fabric recreates the space dyed look of sweaters from the seventies. It might lead to another sweater design, more retro in shape, using this type of yarn again. By the way, space dyed is still an operative term. Here is one definition; and here is another. It seems to mean yarn dyed in specified lengths of one color and then another and another, etc., repeating along the length of the skein.

There is another reason, unrelated to clothing or design, why I wanted to use this particular yarn at this particular time. Because I wanted to use this:


And this, my Christmas presents:
to make this:

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