04-20-2024

This is a test knit - It had the double honor of testing the pattern and the knitter. I’ve done color work before (and loved it!), but only with two colors and never with long floats. So, it’s a project of several firsts.

1) First Doodle - I think I have all the Doodle Decks to date, but felt a bit crippled by the the planning phase - choosing colors, figuring out which designs to use, etc. I applied to test knit this pattern and was thrilled to be selected, because it gave me the push I needed to just do this thing. I didn’t plan, I just grabbed my DK leftovers (and purchased some natural), picked a design to start with, and let it evolve as I went. I tentatively selected a handful of colors I thought might work together and ended up using about half of them along with another handful that I hadn’t initially considered. To cut down a bit on decisions, I used my colors in sets of two. I only had to pick, a new set of colors every two patterns. Conveniently, I ended up using 14 motifs and ended up with a rainbow of alternating standard and inverted sections. My colors for a given sections somewhat influenced the chart I picked, but not always - especially with the animals - which ended up in all sorts of delightful un-animal-like colors.

2) This was my first time doing 3 color stranded colorwork. I watched some videos. I also ripped out my first two motifs and started over because I wasn’t happy with my tension. Admittedly, the later motifs are more even than the early ones. I feel reasonably proficient now :).

3) This was my first time dealing with long floats. This was honestly the toughest thing for me. I got comfortable catching the long floats, but feel they leave minute artifacts in the finished work. After blocking they are less noticeable. One video recommended staggering the catches to avoid having a column of catches, but I ended up catching them in columns in the end. This cowl has a mix of staggered and columns of caught floats. I expect to be more consistent and methodical with my next Doodle, but this was a great opportunity to experiment and figure out what works for me.