Dabbling with color

I love using socks, baby sweaters and gifts as a way to knit with color I otherwise wouldn't use.  Yes, I love neutrals.  Yes, I'm made fun of by most of the people I know.  So when the occasional bright color(s) catches my eye (and literally falls off the shelf into my hands), the unending commentary from my buddies at Knitty City start swirling about.  "Wow, what are YOU going to use that for?"  "You're finally branching out!"  "It's about time - give up those grays!"  Most of the time, I don't have the heart to tell them it's for someone other than myself.  But here it goes:  those two skeins of Plaid Blanket I bought?  It was for a baby sweater.

My friend had a baby boy a few months ago, so I thought an Autumn sweater in Madelinetosh's Plaid Blanket colorway was appropriate.  The seemingly random colors in Plaid Blanket remind me of autumn leaves and come together perfectly.  I loved watching the colors go by as I knit away.  If you're madelinetosh-o-philes like myself, I just whispered the colors to myself as they slid over my fingers: glazed pecan, lettuce leaf, nebula, tern.  At least those are the colorways I saw combined in this beautiful yarn.

I followed the Gramps Cardigan pattern by Kate Oates.  It's a great little pattern with a wide size range.  But, in my humble opinion, the colors in the yarn really makes the little sweater sing. 

And maybe I was inspired by the color of my spinning wheel, but I just had to start spinning some red wool.  Bright red. 

I bought some Louet Corriedale Wool Top, and have been falling more and more in love with this red with every treadle.

Please don't tell anyone I said that.  I'll never hear the end of it.