Pink?!

Barbara from the comments after the last post asked me if I'll ever get to wear the set I made for the book.

Indeed I will receive it back this summer, and it is for me to keep and wear as I like. Which is kind of nice! The shell needed to be made in a certain size specified by the publisher, for their model. I'm lucky I'm the same size, though probably considerably shorter. :)

Thing is, ever since I've received the book and posted about the project, I've been wondering whether I would really really wear the ensemble! Anyone who's ever met me, people who know me: have you ever seen me in pink?

Nope. I am not a pale pink and pearls kind of person at ALL. In the summer I'll wear lighter colors, linen and whatever goes with that. But in general I like solids, deep and rich colors, black, and chocolate brown. I've only recently started to augment that with some brights like turquoise and orange (not together, of course!!)

Then there's the lace. I love knitting it, but when I look at my wardrobe, I barely own a single lace garment. Scarves and shawls are the exception, of course. Lace in small doses, that's more my thing.

So why the heck did I knit a lace garment and stole in a color called Antique Rose??

The answer is fairly simple: I designed them not for me, but to the best advantage of the pattern and the yarn.

I was given a selection of Dorothy Reade's stitch patterns. I was hoping there'd be a diamond one, and there was! Lucky me! In two variations!! That meant I could play. One I used for the shawl, the other I used for the shell.

When I saw the yarns we could choose from, I wanted a yarn that would match the stitch pattern: a soft color that would be interesting, but also not obscure the stitch pattern. Sometimes you don't know until you swatch, but in this instant I was sure from the get go it would work. Lorna's Laces dyes Almost Solids, and it's what I requested.

I also knew I wanted to edge the lace pattern of the shell in seed stitch, which would again work well in the pale pink. (There's almost nothing seed stitch doesn't work with, really.) It would look like small pearls along the neckline. Diamonds, pearls, what could go wrong?? Funny thing is, I don't wear a lot of jewelry, either, I usually save it for special occasions.

So there you have it. A pink lace shawl and shell, and all I wanted was to do the pattern and its inventor justice. I hope I've done that.