Tubey Yarn Selections

Argh. The more I consider yarn choices for Tubey, the less certain I get. Here's what I'm considering:

1) Karabella Aurora 8 in stripes, in one of the following color combos:

a) Black MC with red, dark teal, turquoise, brown, sand:

This was my first thought. It would go with pretty much everything I have, and has similar amounts of contrast to Cassie's choices, so it'd be pretty likely to work well, as long as I place the colors well. I've been photoshopping the colors in the pattern picture, and let me tell you, color placement makes a BIG difference. If I put the bolder colors at the bust and lower hip and the more receeding colors in the midriff, it really plays up the hourglass fit. If not, it looked downright tubby!

I plugged these into the random stripe generator, which is a really handy tool. You tell it what colors (approximately) you have, and what stripe widths are acceptable, and how many rows you'd like in all, and it generates stripe patterns (both a picture and a written pattern) for you. This is really helpful for "test-driving" color combos, since you can refresh the page over and over again to see different combinations. This helped me get some really useful guidelines. For example, in this color combo, I like stripe designs that have a lot of teal, but I don't like ones that put brown next to red. I'm not sure I'm wild about this combo. Then again, the generator doesn't have a rich dark brown like the brown yarn, so maybe the wussier brown is biasing me...

b) Turquoise, Orange, Salmon, Yellow, Mint, and Tan:

This was inspired by some turquoise, orange, yellow and green yarn my friend Francesca picked out for a baby blanket. It would have been the coolest-and-most-baby-appropriate-without-being-stereotypical baby blanket color scheme ever, except that she ended up keeping it for herself. :) I'd probably use Salmon, Mint or Turquoise as the MC. Tan is the most obvious choice, but it may not be as flattering as a bright. The random stripe generator came up with some niiiice combinations for this one.

c) Salmon, Peach, Rose, brighter Rose, Tan and Sand:

I LOVE these colors, but most of my fall/winter pants and skirts are black, tan or denim, so it wouldn't really GO with anything I own (except for a pair of khakis I don't quite fit into at the moment...) I have always wanted a camel-colored pencil skirt, though, and those would look FABULOUS together. I'm SO tempted, but I think I'll stick with something that goes with my _real_ wardrobe. The random stripe generator consistently gave really gorgeous results for this combo. Sniff, sniff.

d) Blue/Greens:

I'm not sure if I'm wild about these. Maybe with three or four colors instead of all six?

e) Purples:

I'm also not as wild about these, but Carrioke's looks great in purple.

f) Purples and Greens:

Again, I'm not wild, but it could be nice.

2) Some GORGEOUS merino/silk handpaint from Over the Rainbow Yarns, to do without stripes:


I lovelovelove this yarn. It's so soft and shiney. I get spot-on gauge with size 6s, but I'm not sure it's elastic enough for Tubey. I'm going to try it with 5s and see how it turns out.


3) KnitPicks Andean Silk in Cranberry

I was going to design something with this, but now I'm thinking I may do a Tubey variation with it. Maybe cable the body, instead of ribbing it, and adding a cable along the top edge of the shrug opening, to frame the neckline? I'll probably save this for my second Tubey. (Listen to me; I haven't even chosen yarn yet, and I'm already talking about doing another!)


Sigh. So many choices, so few available Denise cords.