I really, really like the idea of pay what you can. So here’s my experiment. Use the following codes to pay what you are able. I want EVERYONE to be able to knit my designs.

Code:
TIER1 = 20% OFF, or $4
TIER2 = 40% OFF, or $3
TIER3= 60% OFF, or $2
TIER4 = 80% OFF, or $1
TIER5 = FREE

Houstonia caerulea produces showy flowers approximately 1 cm across. These flowers are four-parted with pale blue petals and a yellow center. The foliage is a basal rosette. Stems are up to 20 cm tall with one flower per stalk. It thrives in moist acidic soils in shady areas, growing especially well among grasses.

Wikipedia

Bluett is a simple memory of mine transformed into a garment. Find yourself 2 contrasting, long color changing yarns, and release control for a moment and let the yarns blend as they will. High contrast and low contrast. Yes to both. Let the yarn do the work

Design Story:

Which comes first, the pattern, or the yarn? In this case, the yarn came first. In early March of 2020, I went to Wool Workshop to browse the trunk show of an indie dyer, Yarn Hero. I was familiar with her work because she had done a previous trunk show with Skein Cocaine several years earlier. Looking for neon yarns to celebrate Spring, while not exactly neon, the colors I acquired were quite bright and across the color wheel from each other. Happy with my purchase, I wound them up, and proceeded to figure out what to design? I poured through Google and Ravelry…… I played with peeries galore. I discovered that while I thought the colors were adequately contrasting, they had some similarities that were problematic as I knit them in tandem. I have long learned that what appears to be problems can actually be a design element. I found a tiny flower peerie, and knit and frogged my little heart out; until I finally got it.

Sometimes, you just have to let go. Let go of your perfectionism. Let go of your desire to be the best, and just let your creation….. Be. Exist. Bluett was conceived right before Covid-19, and was being test knit as the virus arrived on our shores. My small group of brave knitters halted. All I could do was get up, go to work, and try to not scare my teenage children too much. Soon, I was furloughed from the surgical practice and I reconnected with my test knitters. Together, we pushed ahead with the project. We gathered the blossoms of a simple, two color sock to keep our feet warm.

Cool Spring day. Fine, narrow grass between my toes. Long, long, long driveway off center from the lot covered in a huge canopy of shade trees. A blanket of blue, like a persian carpet in front of me as I ran under the arbor and into the blue. I picked as many as my tiny hands would hold. Mama would love them. I raced back to the house where we were visiting and presented her with my gift. “What are they?” “Bluetts.” Simple. Not profound. A perfect gift of a child to their mother.

As many of you know, my relationship with my mother was conflicted at best. Oddly, the artform of knitting, and writing, seem to be the platform for my processing. You would think that because my experiences with her were mostly negative, that I would avoid thinking and writing about her. This does not seem to be the case. It seems mom still takes up a lot of real estate in my brain. I often wonder when I won’t think of her as much. The thoughts of her make me sad.

This pattern has been test knit and tech edited by Woolenthusiast.