Good morning! Something new to show to you today – our latest shade of Milarrochy Tweed.
Dyed to a beautifully saturated hue of blue-y green, this shade is enlivened by tweedy twists and flecks of pale pink and paler green.
It’s a deep, bold colour – almost the opposite of the spectrum from our other new addition to the palette, Asphodel
And we’ve named this shade Ardnamurchan.
Many of you may know that name from the UK shipping forecast, where the lighthouse at Ardnamurchan Point marks the almost-most westerly point of mainland Scotland, and in fact the whole of mainland Britain (the nearby hilly rise of Corrachadh Mòr lying half a degree further west than Cornwall’s Lands End). If you’ve spent any time around the western coasts of Scotland or Ireland, I imagine that this colour will speak immediately to you, as it does to me, of the distinctive light and colour of that part of the world, especially the saturated blue-green hue of the Atlantic. Tom and I had planned to spend some time in Ardnamurchan this spring, but times change. So I thought of the sea while knitting myself an Ardnamurchan Seavaiger instead.
In this sweater, I’ve paired Ardnamurchan with Tarbet, a marine blue that’s another of my favourite Milarrochy Tweed shades
Tarbet is quite close in hue to Ardnamurchan, and also shares the same pale pink tweedy flecks. When knitting with colour, blues have a tendency to swallow up everything around them, so I was interested in what would happen when I placed these two tonally similar shades alongside one another. Would they just cancel one another out?
I was pleased to find that they did not, but rather that the effect of the close striping was subtle and harmonious . . .
. . . while still remaining jolly and stripey in a way that befits a maritime gansey! Ahoy!
I designed Seavaiger as a longer sweater that sits at the hip , but I made this version shorter, knitting the body to 5 inches before beginning the underarm shaping.
I sometimes like to work my sweaters to this shorter length but I also know that many don’t: so be assured that the Seavaiger kits in the shop contain enough yarn to knit the longer version!
The Seavaiger I knit myself last year is among the most comfortable and most-worn garments in my wardrobe.
There’s just something about the easiness and roominess of the garment.
And how the yarn lies, worked at this fairly drapey gauge of 6 stitches to the inch.
I love my yellow Seavaiger inordinately, and I think Tom did a great job with those photos, but I find it quite difficult to look at them because I know that I was really struggling with my mental health at the time that they were taken. I feel a similar unease about the photographs of Manu – which were also taken during a period when I was severely unwell with my bipolar. When I’m elderly, how will it feel to have told the story of my middle years and aging and many ups and downs through these photos of myself? Will the images Tom and I have shot here, close to home, over the past few weeks, feel bound up with the world’s bigger, stranger picture? Perhaps inevitably.
But one of the many things I’m grateful for right now is to not be struggling mentally, and feeling able to face things with a clear head.
If things are difficult for you right now, I hope you have around you things that lift you from and back to yourself – craft, birdsong, family, the written word – and that you are able to find some comfort in the certain knowledge that things will move on and change. We knit on, anyway.
Scrumptious colour!
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Another compelling reason for learning to knit!! I love these colors, and Tom’s gorgeous photos, and seeing the ease and pleasure in your face. Thanks for sharing your creations and your thinking.
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Hi Kate,
What beautiful colours! I love the turquoise and I adore the orange yarn colours. I like both the lengths of sweater on you, but I think the shorter length is very flattering and looks wonderful with the A-line skirt. I’m still struggling with my first Carbeth cardigan so I can only aspire to the Seavaiger pattern after I complete Carbeth No1. I have learnt lots doing it but my one regret making it in a cheap locally sourced yarn which has been a definite mistake. So I definitely hanker after some of the ever so desirable and beautiful Milarrochy tweed! Its Autumn in beautiful Tasmania. Everything is in lock down here and yarn is only obtainable by post. I am enjoying your posts Kate.
Margaret
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thanks, Margaret. Waving to Tasmania from Scotland!
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LOVE the new color! and the orange… Even better i love that you are not struggling mentally right now! Brava! I have struggled with depression and anxiety in the past… Happily, my medication moderates it well, even in the midst of these challenging times.. my motto these days is “Stay safe AND sane”
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Something soothing about the shipping forecast! new colour is lovely/sea worthy but I do love that ORANGE!
Nice jumper and I do remember that photo Manu! Glad you are well.
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Goregeous new color!!
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I love your daily posts, your new colors and Toms photos! Off my balcony this morning, I view Mt. St. Helens which is the mountain that blew her top forty years ago. Today the mountain is tranquil. Who would know that this pandemic is ravaging our country? I’m so grateful for my knitting. It helps ease the pain I feel as we cannot see our children and grandchildren. I’m so grateful that my family is not touched by this insidious disease. I feel so sad for all the families that have lost a mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife or worst of all their children.
Stay well and keep creating, writing, knitting and most importantly loving all those who love you.
Mary
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Love that combination of colors!
And I was struck by the familiarity of your observation about photos from a certain time calling back the feeling/emotion-tone of that period. I had severe post-partum depression after the birth of my first child, and every photo I look at from that period seems to me to carry the overlay of grayness that I experienced at that time of my life. As you say, I am ever-grateful that right now, I am in a different mindspace, as our world moves through this shared crisis.
PS. I’m behind on my reading, but am loving the poetry and regular posts. Thank you!
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Love that turquoisy yarn! Life ebbs and flows. But in any case your angst doesn’t show in the photos, to an outsider.
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I love this colour and your thoughts. As an artist working to express my vision in fiber, this is a wonderful addition to my palette. I appreciate and enjoy starting off my day with your blog posts. You’re an inspiration to us all.
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Thought I loved the grellow of the longer Seavaiger, but/and this cropped version in these colours is amazing! The combination captures some of the colours I see most days on my walks by the big freshwater bay where I live; just as on your waters, the light and the colours are always changing. What a joy to see it on you.
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I love the new colour. The combination you have used in the jumper are two of my favourite colours.
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I agree completely.
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Are there any more beautiful colours to come? Some days ago I ordered Aspholdel and now I have to have some of the *cantspelltheword* too. But if there is more to come, I wait until I order. *bigsmile*
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there’s just the two new shades – no more to come.
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Perfect. Me = off to shop.
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Whyever did ‘blue’ become a synonym for melancholy, when it’s actually such a soothing – and even joyful colour?
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I am inspired by your attitude and your style. Lovely.
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Love the new colour. Lovely to see you looking so well.
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After not being initially won over by Seavaiger when you released it last year, I am totally smitten by this colour combination, which are two of my favourites. I LOVE this new shade. Glad to hear that you are in a better place this year too.
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What a beautiful colour and you look stunning Kate.
Keep well,keep safe and keep knitting xxx
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What a beautiful color and sweater. Especially after your down times and the strange situations of now, I love the big smile and pure joy that came thru in these photos. Thanks so much for all your beautiful writings also.
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Oh I love that color! I’ll put it on my wish list.
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Lovely colours, lovely yarn plus I love your hair and glasses!
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Beautiful I’m wearing my Seavaiger in red & green this morning
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Your new colors are so beautiful and you wear them well! I enjoy the happy, brighter colors all the time and after being in STAYATHOME lockdown for a month and counting I am more eager than ever to knit and wear the bright colors of happiness.
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Oh my lord, that colour combo is just so juicy! And yes- the saturated colour of the sea around the west and north-west coast of Scotland (always enhanced by the north atlantic coral beaches, I think) is spot on.
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What an amazing colour … my favourite colours are blue and green and all the colours that fall between the two and Ardnamurchan fits in there beautifully!
I’m so pleased to hear that you are well Kate! xx
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So, so beautiful.
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This new shade is absolutely beautiful – and I love the subtle striping with Tarbet.
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I read to the Ahoy! and then saw the picture of you and laughed at your joy! Very much a Bring Me Sunshine pose 😄 Hopefully these photos will help cancel out the feelings of the other photos. We live in the now.
I’m trying to see what size the milarrochy tweed is, a DK? I’m currently knitting in 4ply and it’s playing havoc with my arthritis in my hands as the needles are so fine.
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it is a 4 ply equivalent, Amanda, but works really well at looser gauges – 24 sts to 4 inches and a 3.75mm needle is probably a bit easier on the hands than a standard 4ply.
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Amanda have you tried using wooden needles metal ones make my knuckles ache but don’t with using the wooden ones.
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Hi Karen, yes I have wooden ones. I wish they could be ergonomic and fat like my hooks! 😃 I just have to pace myself with knitting. Plenty of crochet and stitch in between! I guess 45 years of fiddling with needles is taking it’s toll. 😟
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Glorious colour. It’s a funny thing how you crave different colours at different times. I want to knit this one right now (just as you described the asphodel colour brightening your day), yet on the day I left my much loved office for lockdown, it was the soft shades of land o’ cakes that my hands and eyes needed. Sleeves done and body commenced, I’ll need to hurry through to get to the brighter shades. Until then I’ll enjoy the quiet loamy shade that is hare.
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“quiet loamy shade” – that is hare exactly!
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This is fantastic! I adore it. And named after a place I adore too! Win, win x
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This is a very beautiful shade of blue! It reminds me of my shock at the intense colour of the sea around the isle of Lewis when I visited for the first time in October. And you look so well in it – it’s a pleasure to see that! I always love the mention of Ardnamurchan in the prayerful sound of the shipping forecast last thing at night, so it’s great that it’s celebrated like this. I’m interested by your point that blue tends to swallow other colours around it. It’s my go-to in everything, yet since lockdown I’ve had a real impulse to wear other – brighter – colours. Stay well Kate, and thanks for sharing.
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Such a beautiful colour. One of my favourites. Love all blues, but those blue/ green shades are the best.
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LOVE the new colour!
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