Do you remember how I told you about the scrap yarn shawl knock off for Mary-Claire? Oh good. I decided I’m going to call it SYSKO when writing about it because typing it all out each time seems excessive.

On Saturday night I was able to spend some time with my sister. I brought the yarn for the project along to get her opinion on the order of the yarn. We poured some wine into hotel paper cups and set the yarn out to take a look.

It took one glance to see that making this a fade would look pretty gross. Mary-Claire said I can make it whatever pattern I want, it just needs to include the colors. I thought about making a fun chevron pattern, but then I realized that anything other than stripes is probably going to look like an afghan. I’m just going to knit garter stitch stripes with a row of stockinette at the color changes so they look cleaner.

Once the fade was out of the picture it became all about getting the colors in the best order. There was some intense discussion about this.

It was Mary-Claire’s decision, but everyone wanted to weigh in on it. John had some pretty strong opinions about the placement of the pink and purple for someone who is not knitting the item, wearing the item, or even living with the person wearing the item. Mary-Claire and James almost came to blows over the color order.

In the end Mary-Claire decided on the order of blackberry, spruce, turmeric, conch, gosling, and almond. It should be a nice mix of color to add on top of her gray wardrobe.

Once the colors were decided upon I should have cast on a gauge swatch, but I decided to eat pizza instead. Margarita pizza is always better than knitting a swatch. 

My goal for this week is to knit a swatch. I know it won’t take long once I sit down to do it. I just need to tear myself away from the book I’m reading to get it done.