This month, we’ve been having a ball over in the Ravelry group with August’s Boost Your Knitting technique, choosing colours for stranded colourwork knitting! Several knitters have already finishing their Skystone Armwarmers, this month’s featured pattern by Felicity (Felix) Ford, and many more have stunning ones in progress! It’s been so fun to see people’s inspiration sources and the ways they interpret them …
Some have taken their colour cues from awe-inspiring places. Debby (SailingBy on Ravelry) based her armwarmers on a medieval church’s stone font:
I love the way Debby subtly played with her colours for the second mitt, making for a pair of fraternal, rather than identical, twins!
Maylin (blithespirit on Ravelry) was inspired by photos from a hike in Iceland — check out her inspiration on her Ravelry project page.
Others have been inspired by more daily views … Claire (soupdragon on Ravelry) has knocked it out of the park with her Skystone Armwarmers insired by the flowers outside of her window!
So far, the KAL has really been characterized by experimentation and innovation. Knitters have approached the task of picking colours with gusto, trying things out, ripping back what doesn’t work, and ending up with some beautiful finished objects. And there’s been lots of tip swapping — we’ve had a good chat going, for instance, about how we all deal with ends in colourwork. And there has also been fun innovation … check out Sarah’s amazing “branded” Skystones (you can see more gorgeous photos on her project page):
And Skystone designer Felicity Ford has also been popping in and out of the Ravelry group, knitting her own new pair of pine cone-inspired Skystone Armwarmers. She’s shared loads of excellent tips and advice — including this great post on letting yourself just try things out at the beginning of a creative endeavour, applicable to so many parts of life, not just knitting! — as well as a playlist (of songs and words) inspired by the knitalong, which you can find here! So cool!
It’s been a really inspiring month so far. Even if you’re not planning to take part, do go have a look at the August BYK KAL thread and the photo inspiration thread if you just want a bit of knitting and colour inspiration! And if you’d like to join in Boost Your Knitting, you’ve got through this Sunday to purchase it at it’s pre-order price, which includes the print book shipped free worldwide in September — you can find all the information here. And there’s lots of Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight in the shop — you can choose from single balls, starter packs of five shades, or what I like to think of as the whole enchilada … one each of every shade of J&S 2ply Jumperweight that we currently stock (yep, you’ll get 59 25 gram balls of delightful wool delivered to your door step!)