Baa, Baa Black Sheep

Here is the back of the Caorah Dubh sweater, pinned out on the blocking board.

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to take a respectable photo of this color, but you can absolutely take my word for it:  My yarn rocks.

To describe knitting with my own handspun, I'll have to resort to a food metaphor:  If working with millspun yarn were a perfect hothouse tomato, dewy and chilled from the produce aisle, then handspun knitting would be standing in the garden, filching tomatoes off the vine.  They have blemishes, they are warm from the sun, and there is absolutely nothing else in the world quite like them.

Make me this promise, Gentle Readers, even if you have no interest in learning to spin yourself:  Get hold of some handspun yarn, and make something from it.  You don't have to become a Master Gardener to appreciate a good tomato.  Just find the right garden.
 

The Results Are In

Many sincere thanks, Gentle Readers, for your words of opinionated wisdom,  What a clever and generous lot you are!  The winning candidate, based on your input, is "A".  Here is another shot of it, in natural light.

"A" would like to thank its many supporters, and promises to remain both deep and sophisticated, at least through the first few washes.

In other news, I'm leaving for a long, romantic weekend by the sea.  I'm taking someone very special with me:  Someone warm and dear, who has known me for quite a while, and who has been through so much with me that we have truly become soul mates:

I'm sure you all remember Caora Dubh, the 5-ply handspun.  Here is the very first swatch, with which I am pleased to distraction.  The sketch is my jumping-off point.  I have chosen some really pretty cables, and found some very special buttons, so I feel good about the direction we're headed, the String and I.  To say I have a crush on this yarn is putting it mildly.  Knitting with it is a sublime experience.  There are simply not words to describe the enjoyment.  I think we are going to have a really intimate and enlightening time together this weekend. 

Sure hope my husband and children being there won't wreck it.

Delicious Dilemma

A surprisingly challenging thing I find about designing handknits is how often I have the urge to backseat drive, where yarn colors are concerned.  Yarnmakers have mad skills that I can only dream about, and the colors they offer or don't offer are as much a part of their art as my designs are part of mine.  But sometimes, try though I might not to, I formulate an opinion of what sort of yarn I want, and then set about trying to find it.

Having the cart and horse in this unnatural order nearly always leads to disappointment.  It turns out that my ability to imagine a yarn in no way impacts the yarn manufacturers' desire to make one.

No, it's far better for me to see the available yarn choices first, and then concoct a design to go with them. 

So imagine my dread when I made this swell handspun yarn, and then was persuaded by a friend to go searching for a companion for it.  I knew exactly what I thought it needed, and despaired of ever actually finding it.  And then this shade card came!

Behold the choices!  Almost any of them would work beautifully!  In fact, there are not one, but three contenders:

Choice "A" is a deep, moody merlot.  Neither purple nor red, it floats in the netherworld in between.  "A" reads Dostoyevsky, listens to Chopin, and nearly always remembers its mother's birthday.

Choice "B" is a pure periwinkle, descended directly from Vinca Minor.  "B" is fashionably late to parties, has far too many friends, and a weakness for pulp fiction.  "B" wears cultured pearls to the dentist.

Choice "C" is the sour apple that makes your jaw ache before you've even tasted it.  "C" cares not a whit for the opinions of others, wakes up appallingly early, and once lost an entire weeks' wages betting on the ponies.  "C" knows which fork to use, but usually goes for the spoon.

Which of these is your favorite, Gentle readers? Which would you take out for coffee?  Which would you introduce to your mother?  Which would you trust with a secret?  Thank you for weighing in!