I was true to my word. Last night, I worked on weaving the ends of last year's Mystery'ghan (which I ended up calling my Bellingrathghan). There were many more than I remembered, so I had to finish them up today. But now they're done!
The afghan doesn't lay quite as smoothly as I'd like, but I'm probably just being too picky. Even with the rumples, I think it's pretty-- especially for a stash-busting project. (I was trying to use up some of the Caron Simply Soft I'd accumulated. While I like some things about that line, I don't like that it's so different in size from the other acrylic yarns I use, so I'm trying to avoid buying it, now. I might make an exception if I were buying enough for a specific project, but for "mix and match" purposes, it's not a favorite.)
Here are a few photos, with the now-standard disclaimer that they could be better. Maybe I'll take another photo or two with better lighting... someday. (I dread bothering with photos outdoors, though they usually turn out best. The heat. The humidity. Gosh, and it's only May... Can we have October weather instead, please?)
Now that I've done all the finishing work on last year's "mystery'ghan", I can start thinking about the new one with a clear conscience. I examined the stash and starting pulling out skeins. It's always fun to choose colors. :o)
After looking at what I have (and in what quantities), I'm thinking of making this year's MCAL another stash-busting project. The bulk of the yarn I'm currently considering is vintage acrylic yarn kindly passed on to me by others. Some of it is definitely in dated colors. We have avocado green and harvest gold-- and there's quite a bit of peach, which, while not as strong associated with past decades as those other two, is still not quite a modern "it" color. (Or has it recently sprung into trendiness? It's difficult to keep up, and I'm trying to care less what the "fashion world" thinks than I care what I think, when it comes to decorating our home.)
In any case, they're not colors I would probably go out and buy new, to tell the truth. (Especially the avocado and gold.) However, they're not rough, scratchy yarns, and they seem fine to work with... And I'll admit that I'm intrigued by the challenge of working "ugly" yarn into something acceptable to modern eyes. Given the right partners, I think just about any color can be vastly improved. And the whole afghan's style is going to be retro, so... It might work!
Right now I'm looking at peach as a main color, with a supporting cast of (harvest) gold, (avocado) green, and teal. Possibly with a punch of pumpkin and dark green. Here's a slap-dash (built-in-flash) photo of some of the yarn under consideration:
I tried to make a palette of the colors from memory. I had a hard time with the peach, but the others are close...
I'm still not sure, but I think it's possible, with judicious placement of colors (probably no peach touching gold, plenty of teal and green... and not too much orange, if any-- because I'm really starting to think it might be better without it), to make an appealing afghan from that combination of yarn.
Of course, I reserve the right tocome to my senses say "What was I thinking?!" change my mind. This is all very preliminary. ;o) All part of the fun!
The afghan doesn't lay quite as smoothly as I'd like, but I'm probably just being too picky. Even with the rumples, I think it's pretty-- especially for a stash-busting project. (I was trying to use up some of the Caron Simply Soft I'd accumulated. While I like some things about that line, I don't like that it's so different in size from the other acrylic yarns I use, so I'm trying to avoid buying it, now. I might make an exception if I were buying enough for a specific project, but for "mix and match" purposes, it's not a favorite.)
Here are a few photos, with the now-standard disclaimer that they could be better. Maybe I'll take another photo or two with better lighting... someday. (I dread bothering with photos outdoors, though they usually turn out best. The heat. The humidity. Gosh, and it's only May... Can we have October weather instead, please?)
- - - - - - -
Now that I've done all the finishing work on last year's "mystery'ghan", I can start thinking about the new one with a clear conscience. I examined the stash and starting pulling out skeins. It's always fun to choose colors. :o)
After looking at what I have (and in what quantities), I'm thinking of making this year's MCAL another stash-busting project. The bulk of the yarn I'm currently considering is vintage acrylic yarn kindly passed on to me by others. Some of it is definitely in dated colors. We have avocado green and harvest gold-- and there's quite a bit of peach, which, while not as strong associated with past decades as those other two, is still not quite a modern "it" color. (Or has it recently sprung into trendiness? It's difficult to keep up, and I'm trying to care less what the "fashion world" thinks than I care what I think, when it comes to decorating our home.)
In any case, they're not colors I would probably go out and buy new, to tell the truth. (Especially the avocado and gold.) However, they're not rough, scratchy yarns, and they seem fine to work with... And I'll admit that I'm intrigued by the challenge of working "ugly" yarn into something acceptable to modern eyes. Given the right partners, I think just about any color can be vastly improved. And the whole afghan's style is going to be retro, so... It might work!
Right now I'm looking at peach as a main color, with a supporting cast of (harvest) gold, (avocado) green, and teal. Possibly with a punch of pumpkin and dark green. Here's a slap-dash (built-in-flash) photo of some of the yarn under consideration:
I tried to make a palette of the colors from memory. I had a hard time with the peach, but the others are close...
I'm still not sure, but I think it's possible, with judicious placement of colors (probably no peach touching gold, plenty of teal and green... and not too much orange, if any-- because I'm really starting to think it might be better without it), to make an appealing afghan from that combination of yarn.
Of course, I reserve the right to