Earth and Sky

I have an idea for my next sweater project. Well, actually, it will be the sweater after next, since I owe my husband a cashmere sweater. Plain stockinette. Crew neck. Black. Sportweight. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.

But after that, I have an idea for a new project. Have you seen these? They are the Shibui Transitions gloves. I'd love to paste a picture here, but I don't want to steal anyone else's picture, so this is a Ravelry link.

Oh, okay. Here is a little picture from shibuiknits.com:

I fell in love with this design instantly. I love the way the color shifts from top to bottom (this is done with two solid colors, using fair isle colorwork). But I have no real use for fingerless gloves, and as we all know, I have a small sweater addiction I just can't shake. Still, this concept has been kicking around in my subconscious for a while.

A few weeks ago, I scored some Malabrigo Silky Merino in a Ravelry destash. I had been wanting to get my hands on some, and none of the yarn shops within driving distance carry it. So when I saw someone destashing four skeins for about half the retail price, I jumped on it, even thought the color was Cloudy Sky, a greyish-blue that I would never choose for myself:

With the exception of blue jeans, or the occasional navy power suit, I don't wear blue. I have red hair and olive green eyes, and blue isn't really my color. But the yarn...oh, the yarn! It is amazingly soft. Buttery soft. The sort of soft that makes you want to roll around naked with it. Or, um, maybe that's just me. But you get the idea.

Sadly, four skeins is not enough to make a sweater, even if I wanted a blue sweater. It is enough for a lace shawl, but I think we've beat that dead horse enough. So I've been waiting patiently for inspiration to strike.

Today it did.

I was checking the Ravelry destash pages today and found another knitter destashing eight skeins of Silky Merino for a very good price, this time in Redwood Bark, which appears to be a dark, reddish brown. Here's the picture from malabrigoyarns.com:

The pictures I've seen on Ravelry are much redder than this, so I suspect this is not a terribly accurate shot. But the basic idea works: four skeins of grey-blue + eight skeins of red-brown = one transitions sweater.

I'm thinking I'll base the shape on the Opulent Raglan. I wear mine all the time, probably more than any of my other sweaters. I love the deep, square neckline, and the elbow-length sleeves are not only surprisingly comfortable, but also much cooler than full-length sleeves--which is important when summer extends into December. So I think this will be a longish, fitted sweater with a deep, square neckline and elbow-length sleeves. The color will transition from blue to brown (or brown to blue; I haven't decided) somewhere around the midriff. I've never tried fair isle before, but I don't imagine it will be too difficult, especially with only two colors.

Did anyone else hear the KG laughing? No? Must have been my imagination.