Do you remember me making my colourful  Modern Quilt Wrap? (Known as MQW…)

It was this lovely scarf/wrap…

Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Kandis

My original MQW

Some of the Guilty Knitters are thinking of making their own MQW but wanted to change some colours to stash bust. I got thinking about my gargantuan Kidsilk Haze stash but was struggling to visualize how a different colour pallet would look.

Hmmmm….I think I know how to solve this!

I modeled the squares for the MQW on my computer using Microsoft Visio (I use this a lot for work) and assigned each colour to a layer so I could change all of any one colour easily. I addedd a big number for the order that you knit the squares and smaller numbers for the number of rows for each colour so I wouldn’t have to keep referring back to the pattern…

Then the fun began…

This is the original colours of the MQW…

Mags Kandis really knows how to put colours together!

Hmmm – What about some browns, creams, golds? This is from what I have in stash….

A bit camouflage?

A bit too camofalgish for me…

Maybe some blues and greys?  It was at this point I realized how difficult it is to get 9 distinctly different colours that tone properly!

Hmmm – kinda works?

The colours in the key in red are ones I’d have to buy to make it work….

OK, what about if I got arty and tried a homage to the impressionist artist Piet Mondrian?

This was my inspiration…

I love Mondrian’s paintings

I came up with this….

Ahhh…..No.

Nice idea but I really don’t think I’ll wear that! It’s a bit garish in a scarf… And not enough colours in a Mondrian painting for this wrap and not colours I’d be happy wearing. Apart from that it’s fine!

After burning my retinas with the Mondrian colours I thought some nice pastels might work…

Hmm – not bad. Springish???

I quite liked this – it kinda says “Spring”, however – when I put the actual balls of yarn together it was a bit wishy-washy for my tastes. And I’d need to buy 4 colours – getting to be less of a stash buster 🙁

So I tried a Pinkish version – Lots of pink KSH in my stash…

Ohh – Nice!

Only two to buy to but for this one! I like it but it wasn’t making my needles twitch….

Then I went for the reds….

Yummy!

Ohhh – I wear these colours a lot, especially for work – and I’ll only have to buy the “644- Steel grey”…

I do have a confession though – This isn’t the exact colour scheme I started with.  I took the colours I had and went to my local John Lewis to make sure the colours really worked in real life. They didn’t 🙁  I bought 3 balls that I thought might help and had a rummage and play with my stash when I got home, realising that some sparkly Kidsilk Eclipse gave the necessary variation. (I have to confess to this because Josiekitten has already wagged her finger at me via Ravelry after she spotted the three balls being added to  my stash!!)

So have I cast on? – No. Not yet. I’m waiting for Mel and Judie from  Guilty Knitters to be ready to start and we are going to have a knit along. Apparently, I’m too quick to be allowed to start first. Maybe just one row of blocks, just to make sure the colours work?

Hmm…my needles are definitely twitching!