Yarn pegs and oh, the colour planning possibilities

Yesterday I shared all the unwrapping excitement about my new yarn pegs from Emily at ThePolkaDotGiraffe on Etsy. Its like having a new toy! I’m so glad I’ve got these and that they have arrived before the holidays so I can do loads of lovely colour playing.

They are going to be so useful when planning new projects but I’ve already started to feel the benefit of them with a couple of projects I’ve already got in progress.

Linus project blanket colour planning with yarn pegs

The other project I’m working on, albeit a bit slowly at the moment, is the blanket for the Linus Project. This is a charity project to supply blankets to children in hospital in the UK (I talk about it in Episode 43 and Episode 44 of my podcast. I’m adapting the pattern for the Sea Breeze Crochet scarf that I originally did in Batik colours and I’m making a version in an ice cream colour palette in Stylecraft Special DK. From left to right so far I have Mocha, Silver, Mushroom, Pale Rose, Parchment, Parma Violet, Duck Egg, Clematis, Buttermilk and then more Parchment.

I tried out my yarn pegs and some of the other colours that I’ve been planning to use to see how they looked.

I want to carry on the ice cream theme but not get too sickly, so I’m still not sure if I’ll use all of the colours I’ve picked out. Its just that they go so well together…

Using yarn pegs to plan the neck colour for my second poncho

The second is my second poncho. I chatted in Episode 44 of the podcast about the ponchoalong, which is now underway and runs until February 14th 2018. So many people are busy this time of year, it seemed like a good idea to extend the CAL to well into the New Year.

You can check out the Crafternoon Treats Ravelry group threads – there is one for chatter and one for your finished ponchos. I’ll be getting together some prizes for next February and will post about them on my blog nearer the end date. One lovely hookster has already finished her stripy poncho – Emslittlenest on Ravelry – and its so fab, I’ve added it as a featured photo to the pattern page.

The Desert Irony Poncho pattern is currently available at 25% discount, if you quote the code ponchoalong25.

Anyway, I thought it would be great to join in with my own ponchoalong and make a second one. I’ve already made a sort of second one using the new Stylecraft Batik swirl yarn I’ve recently been sent from the lovely people at Stylecraft to try and to review. I only started it a few days ago, but its growing very nicely.

The Stylecraft Batik swirl yarn is a cake with long colour changes and, so far, its working out really well in my poncho pattern. I have been a bit stuck though, with what to do with the neck. It needs finishing off because the start is a chainless foundation round. This means the neck is nice and stretchy but its also a bit less neat than a chained foundation.

In my first poncho, I made a short roll neck and then with the little poncho cowl I made later, I added rows to increase the neck to make it more cowl-like.

For this poncho I’m thinking about an even larger roll neck so its really snuggly and I intend to wear it on several PJ days at Christmas. The trouble is, I don’t want the neck to be made of several colours, so I’m thinking of getting a ball of the standard Batik yarn to use completely. I didn’t know which colour to get, but now I can use the lovely yarn pegs to explore the possibilities…

I’ve added a few rows since and the pegs I’ve picked out reflect the main swirl colours. I was initially thinking about a ball of Indigo (the navy blue on the left). But the teal is an attractive option and I like the sage because its so similar to the colour in the first lighter band of the poncho. I don’t think mint or pistachio will be right, as I don’t think they will look good against my face 🙂

I will have to look in my (now) very small stash of Batik leftovers and see if I have any of those colours just to add a bit of the neck to see how it looks.

I also ABSOLUTELY love these yarn pegs and I am so happy with my order from ThePolkaDotGiraffe. I suppose I maybe should have waited until Christmas to use them, as they are a present to me, but who cares? Yarn pegs are for life, not just for Christmas xxx Kathryn