Designing Shades of Amber

Why Amber? Maybe because I lived in Russia and remember the day my dad bought an Amber necklace for my mom that she wore often or it is simply so beautiful and fascinating on its own, butI always loved Amber. There are so many shades of this interesting substance that is not really a stone, but rather a tree resin. Here is the link to an article about it on the Paul Getty Museum’s website (LA area museum).

This is a photo of my ring that has greenish-yellow and dark brown colors. Isn’t it beautiful? Not the usual sunny brown, hah?

Anyway, when Anzula yarn company sent me some colors of their new yarn called It Could be Worsted for Carnelian, I had one color that I did not use called Sexy. It was blending too much with the scheme of colors and did not show at all. 

On its own it is a beauty. So, I thought I would use it for a small project like a cowl and use stitches that I teach in my Craftsy.com class  and is in the upcoming book The Art of Slip-Stitch Knitting. 

First choice I made for my swatch was a combination of Sexy and another color, Gravity. I took them with me on my trip to NY and made a swatch. As usually, I was not only paying attention to colors, but was playing with the stitch itself. I thought that these colors look very classy together and many people will relate to them.

After the swatch was finished, I was very happy with the chosen modification of the Woven Wave stitch pattern, but there was something on a way for me to LOVE it. When I came home and sorted things out, I saw that I have another color Canary and made another swatch just to see what it does.

Wow, what a difference!! That was it!  The stitch pattern and the colors all came together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I needed to name my design, Amber came to mind right away. Like I said, it could be just me seeing shades of Amber here.

My beautiful model Katy is touring in Europe right now, so I do not have good photos of this cowl on a person yet. As most of the time, I was impatient. The cowl is so small that it can look good on a flat surface, so I’ve decided to go ahead and post about it. I tried to take a picture of it on my Monique, but you see that it is not great lighting since it is in my studio. Although, I have to say, she is very chic, no?

About the Shades of Amber pattern.

19 stitches and 27 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette stitch

US 5 – 3.75 mm

250 – 300 yards (229 – 274 m)

23″ /58 cm neck circumference and 7″/ 18 cm tall

It is worked in the round starting with Dewdrop cast on and finished with I-cord bind off.

Really fast and easy knit. I think with the right color choices it is good for a man or a woman.

I hope you will enjoy making it. I am dying to see your projects on Ravelry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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