LittleGreenDragon and I were talking earlier in the year about the idea of a collaboration. Maybe designing two variations on a theme, perhaps using a shared stitch pattern and making one simple design and one complex.

When we revisited the idea more recently, we thought it might be fun to throw the idea open to anyone who wanted to design something, with some basic design criteria/themes to work to.

And it’s here, and running from Jan 15, until, um, sometime. Feel free to come join us!

The 3 themes are leaves, incorporating a colourwork element, and using a gradient yarn.

Specs: I used 2 different yarns for the stripes, but could easily have used the one skein, and knit the stripes from both ends of the ball. This would have used an extra 32g/153y.

Wilderness gradient - 83g/400y
Brown CC - 42g of sport, or extra 32g/150y of same weight.

Can be worked from one yarn, and the lace can be extended to use more or less yarn.

Measures 170x50 (67x20y) post blocking.
(Unblocked 28 cm to end of stripes, 38 to bottom.)

Still evolving the details. I’d originally thought a semi-circle with a simple cable twist slipped over stripes down the centre of each wedge, but playing with this style of cable in the first swatch (pale pink to pale blue, with the lace at the end) proved to be too interesting, and sketching led to many ideas, which led to this series of swatches with thick cables versus thin, and experimenting with the placement of the undercables.

Having something so busy going on with the cables (and also a busy lace) led to rethinking the idea of 3 separate branches, so I’ve reduced that to only one, and in a cresangle shape to avoid any potential warping due to the semi circle shape. (Which occurred a little when I used this shape in First, Love, but perhaps that’s due to not using blocking wires.)

(The leaves will be in the lace, which is based on Naomi Parkhurst’s Wilderness, and looks very leafy to me.)

Swatching has given me a good chance to try out various yarn bases too, and I find I prefer a really plump fingering to the more dense, skinny varieties. So I’m rethinking my first yarn choice..

I’ve gone through my stash of gradient fingering yarn (fingering to suit the lace, or I’d go up to DK) and pulled out some potentially compatible neutrals, and now just have to pick two. Which really shouldn’t be that hard, so it’s a bit silly that I’m spending so much time scratching my head over it. May have to resort to a poll.

68g dark brown
83.7 moss
144g Wilderness