Julia is admiring this colorway called ‘Rustic’ to be released for next fall. I sent her the color names/numbers used since she already has the pattern and can now just start kitting it up. I also promised her a shot of what it looks like knit up:

I am thinking the chamois might be a bit light–its the cream stripes–but on the other hand it does have that orangy red that ties in well with the other colors. Which leads us to the subject of kits.

I am, admittedly, a color unsure knitter. I tend to stick with tone on tone or sharp standard[safe traditional i.e black and white type] contrasts. I like following multi-color patterns word for word. At least in the materials sections of pattern. One would think I like kits but I don’t. My main beef is that most kits come only as kits. We are rarely offered the option of purchasing the pattern and then gathering up the yarns hank by hank. Even if I have every intention of using the exact yarns called for in the quantities and places directed I think the kit people are thoughtless. There are some exceptions of course. Alchemy for example does not charge for its patterns[at the moment this could change so don’t quote me 5 years from now] and offers kits with a generous premeasured yardage of colors called for. Getting a kit from them is purchasing just the yarn you need instead of the yarn needed plus half a dozen partial balls that would be leftover. Colinette on the other hand sends you full hanks of the colors asked for so there is no real savings between kit price and individual hank prices. Of course I haven’t fringed any of these throws and the instructions state to distribute whatever yarn is leftover into such and such lengths and fringe all around. So I guess one does use all the yarn provided if one likes fringes. And is price a real factor in a kit? Well if the companies are providing full hanks in the kit then it is thoughtful and considerate and nice IMO to offer the pattern to the general public so that people, such as myself, can grab a hank here or there. It is difficult for me[and I assume many others] to plop down $200 for a kit but easy to plop down $25-50 on a jaunt to the LYS. It may be my general unemployed SAHM frugality speaking. Still I think the working woman with a steady and reliable income to say oh I will plop down for this kit cause I get paid next week and we have groceries and bills are paid and what not. Of course paying of bills and rent and groceries isn’t necessarily guarenteed with a salaried job but you get my drift. I better just shutz upz before I offend any working woman that comes accross the blog. But really what do you think? Do you like the option of picking up a hank or two of yarn to fill a pattern’s requirements or do you say woo hoo a kit? I kinda wanna know if I am so off base in my thinking.

TTFN knitfans