all the colours

Hello! We are home again after taking an actual break. It was wonderful to spend a week walking and relaxing in a different and extremely lovely part of Scotland, which we hadn’t previously visited. We (and the dogs) had a whale of a time. I’ll say more about where we were a little later in the week, but first, here’s a delayed mention of a couple of kits that were updated and restocked after our big yarn delivery – the Dathan pullover and the Dathan Hap.

These are patterns that encourage you to play with colour, by knitting stripes in fifteen shades, using a sequence that you can choose to knit completely randomly, or by using a previously generated sequence. When I knitted the original samples, I really enjoyed how picking the next shade without seeing or thinking about it first, and juxtaposing colours in a sequence that I might not ordinarily have chosen, helped me to see them differently.

The Dathan patterns are intended to throw us out of our colour comfort zones, and it makes me happy that so many knitters enjoy the experiment (for a couple of really inspiring examples, see Julie and Marina’s sweaters in this post).

Because of the focus on changing and juxtaposing shades, both patterns are also intentionally quite simple: the hap, for example, is a straightforward garter stitch triangle with a central spine, which expands as you go and can be knitted to whatever size you’d like.

. . . and the pullover – with an easy, dolman shape that falls across the upper arms and body – is also a super simple stockinette knit. You can choose to steek the armscyes to avoid shade changes on the purl side, or if you don’t want to steek, just knit the upper body back and forth.

Knitted at a gauge which creates a lightweight drapey fabric, Dathan is a surprisingly comfortable and easy-to-throw-on sweater that I love to wear in spring (happily, any day of the year can be sweater weather here in Scotland).

So why am I mentioning this now? Because the Dathan kits are two of our most popular in the KDD shop, and I felt I should let you know that we’ve swapped out the discontinued shades with which the original samples were knitted, and updated both kits with new colours, for a slightly fresher feel.

So you’ll find Cowslip, Asphodel and Backen in the new Dathan kits, as well as the rich blue-green of Ardnamurchan . . . which might give you some hint to where we were when these photographs were taken . . .

. . . and where I’ve been enjoying pottering about in my new stripey sweater.

These kits provide a great introduction to the variety and complexity of the Milarrochy Tweed palette, contain pattern, yarn, and project bag and, like all our kits, include a discount of between 10 and 15% on purchasing the kit’s components individually. Great way to try the yarn, and sweater or shawl!

I should also mention, for those of you who have been asking, that we will be opening sign-ups to the Bluestocking Club later this week. Unlike some of our clubs, sign-ups for this one will be time-limited – so do pop back here over the next few days for further details.

until then . . .