I love the new Rowan magazine no.48.

This one

From Hetty

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been excited by the contents of a Rowan mag but this one did it for me.

I wasn’t so keen on the first “story” all big chunky yarns – we know from my Big Wool Bonfire that this stuff isn’t for me.

But it did make me laugh – how can Rowan unfailingly have a garment that looks like a couple of old bathroom mats, staped together at the shoulders and belted??

I give you Roamer…

From Hetty

(Sorry if you’ve just cast this on 😯 )

I loved the Russian doll story – mouthwatering complicated fairisles and intarsias that challenged whether I could make one – I do love drooling over things I think might be too hard!

Then there were the Kidsilk Haze garments … Ohhh – we know I have a small amount in stash don’t we?? Rowan are such pushers of their Cracksilk Haze drug…

I like them all but zeroed in on Hetty…

This one…

From Hetty

Would you believe – in my vast KSH stash – I didn’t have enough of any of the colours to make it. I couldn’t possibly justify going out and buying  KSH when I have over a hundred balls sitting in my knit-room?? Could I ?

I decided to experiment with what colour ways would work with the stash I had – although I allowed myself to buy one small fix of Jelly – the lurid green – it does get into everything!

The problem was I couldn’t visualise where the different colours would go – it’s a rather complicated colour mix – different on the sleeves to the body…

I turned to my favourite PC application,  Visio, and mocked up a garment in the original colours…

From Hetty

Then assigned each of the colours to a layer so I could change all the “Jelly” stripes and Dewberry stripes to another colour with a couple of clicks…

If you have Visio, want to play with your own colour combos  and want a copy of my file and instructions how to use it- click here to download but you do need the Visio software for it to work!

So here is my Autumnal Version…

From Hetty

And utilising some Purple “Violetta” I have…

From Hetty

And cos I have a lot of black sparkly…

From Hetty

And a pretty girly pink using a very pale peach, cream, blushes and fondant…

From Hetty

Isn’t it amazing how different they can look?

I’m still not sure if I’ll actually knit Hetty – It could take a month to decide on colours….

I showed Ben and he instantly hated it so no direction from there  🙁

Which do you like??

Still….Fun playing, Huh? 😀