it seems like once the pattern idea is born,

picking a yarn to knit it in shouldn’t be that hard, right?

i mean i knit a lot,

at least a few minutes of every day if the truth be told,

and after all this time i should know what will work.

shouldn’t i?

but, no.

when the squall of my latest brainstorm had passed,

i assembled the usual suspects and the swatching began.

first up was plymouth yarn company’s

trabajos del peru

this is a semi-solid thick and thin yarn

(semi-solid colors and thick & thinness are two of my favorite things in a yarn)

but the stitches i wanted to use were blurred by the yarn’s strong personality.

malabrigo worsted

(which is actually aran weight, go figure)

was up next.

i bought this solely because the color tugged at me.

the tones in the velvet grape are very rich and deep and …

the stitches were now lost

in the variation of color in this skein.

i actually spent time trying to rework the pattern

determined to make this the perfect project

for just this yarn,

but it wasn’t.

this little ball

of brightly colored cotton would surely work

it isn’t thick and thin.

it’s all one shade (blue sky alpaca’s dyed cotton in ‘cumin’ to be exact).

but alas, the cotton had no elasticity to it leaving the cables flat and the ribbing dull.

down to my last contestant, i cast on turquoise retro by noro.

hopeful and a bit unsure,

much to my surprise it knit along absolutely the way i wanted.

the cables popped,

the ribbing held it’s own,

the smile spread across my face.

there is some color variation in this yarn, but it’s not really different shades.

more like the worn to perfection fade

that your favorite things acquire once they’ve been yours for long enough.

i’m headed back now to the retro and the needles and

the pattern that this combo is working up to be.

knit happy! and be safe this weekend.

‘the fourth’ taken from 1:19 in genesis.