Rainbow in a box

Or another little thing, like when you can put together a delightful colour combination.

This new project I've been working on isn't a little thing though. I've been planning on making a new blanket with Scheepjes Catona. I'm sure you know this yarn is one of my favourites to work with. 100% mercerised cotton, available in loads of colours, and the 10g mini balls make playing with colour incredibly easy without breaking the bank for all shades.

Colour pairing

For this project, I'm not only selecting a rainbow, but I'm forcing myself to use nearly all colours from the colour pack. I did excuse myself from some of the brown, black and grey colours in the mix. Other than that, I'm making the most use out of the box as I can. To add an extra layer of difficulty, I'm pairing the balls up into two shades of the same colour that need to have enough contrast for my plan to work.

A good score

This is what my desk looked like for a couple of days. Arranging, switching, rearranging, until I noted all the final combinations. After that, more switching, second-guessing, rearranging... You get the gist. It was a lot of writing, but in the end, I got all the combinations I wanted. Forty-seven combinations, meaning that I used 94 out of the 109 colours (95 actually, because one colour will not be paired up). I think that's a good score, and I'll use the other balls for something else. Swatching, little decorative trimmings, things like that.

The process was heavily monitored by our little bread loaf, of course. Luckily she doesn't have a thing for kicking small balls around, or the process would have been infinitely more complex.

And now...

So I've got my colour situation under control, I've got the yarn, all that's left is the actual making! I'll show you my progress next time. One thing is certain: it will be colourful. Consider yourself warned!