From my studio at the Norad Mill  I have views to the South, West and North through 10-foot tall windows. We watch the storms come in over the hills from NY or Vermont, safe in our thick-walled building. The beauty of the Berkshires certainly has had an effect on the colors I've produced, but as I sit here knitting yet another Ninilchick Swoncho, this time in a palette of browns, mustards, greens and reds, I'm thinking that as much as it affects my dyeing choices, perhaps even more, the seasons may dictate the colors with which I choose to knit, never more apparent than in the fall when I'm drawn to the palette so vibrant and glowing outside. 

A new concept in color
Picking colors is a little more challenging when working with multiple gradients in a single project. You have to look at how they all work together, across each gradient, decide how the colors will be placed and, if they abut each other, how that will change the look.

I had just finished my first Soldotna Crop (left) using a newish color for the body called Sprout. It was a bit of an odd bird, just shades of green, didn't really fit in with my other gradients, but I knew it was a keeper. The sweater looked great, and I had more ideas to fulfill.

For the Ninilchik I chose Coral Reef, an equal mix of modern and classic with shades of peach from dull to bright. Of the Watercolor range, Coral Reef and Fossil probably have the strongest color change. Due to the construction of the Swoncho, being extremely oversized in the body, the color does convert to less subtle stripe, but take the same Coral Reef and put it in a basic scarf and you'll get a gentle flow as you knit through the ball. 

From here I was off to the races! I put three of the Watercolors together in GardenGate by Jennifer Steingass. Using the rich red of Starfish for the body and Squid Ink with Surf for the yoke. This might be my new favorite sweater of the season. What was doubly fun for me on this project is that I used a Yarn Bomb for the body, 2 Shawl Balls for the sleeves and 3 Minikins for the yoke and cuff patterning. I will talk about matching the body and sleeves of the different gradient balls in a later post, it's not hard to do and looks fabulous! ​

In between projects I managed to slip in one more Soldotna .. (see my earlier post on Potato Chip Knitting.. clearly I have a problem... ). For this one I used Fossil, Pearl and Oyster, and our very bright Relish semi-solid for the trim. Another favorite of the season, like children, it's impossible to just pick one!