Garter Stitch: The Latest Obsession

Sometimes when I am gardening, after stuffing my pots and beds with flowers, I take a step back and realize that I have planted one color. One color. Now, there may be many shades of this one color, but at the end of the day I have a purple garden or a white one...or a pink one (those seem to be the ones I gravitate towards).

It's the same with knitting. Overall, I really like to pick different color yarns for very different projects using (you guessed it!) different stitch patterns. However, while flipping through my project page on Ravelry, I noticed a color theme...

Hmm, are you seeing blue-green (or green-blue) everywhere too? Maybe it's time I start buying a different color?

Color aside, I now have a new obsession, which I only discovered about 2 minutes ago: garter stitch. I have never been a huge fan of garter stitch. It doesn't block as well. It grows easily. It makes a thicker fabric. I could go on... however, I just finished Jane Richmond's Rae (which is a super fabulous and simple pattern, by the way. I highly recommend it.) in a Kelly green superwash merino yarn with neps. And I absolutely adore it! I want to wear it all the time. The yarn is what makes this pattern pop. There is something unique about garter stitch, a looser gauge and shawls that works. This is the perfect marriage of characteristics. It creates a softer, drapier and cozier fabric, making you want to reach for the same shawl to wear again and again.

So now I find myself looking through my Ravelry queue to see what other simple patterns featuring garter stitch, like Rae, are out there to highlight some of my fabulous stash yarn.

And here are the project-yarn pairings which I am considering to make next:

pattern: A Little Ruffle by Jennifer Lang

yarn: Peruvian Highland Tweed

pattern: Trillian by Martina Behm

yarn: Handmaiden's Casbah Sock in Rose Garden

pattern: Study Stripe Shawl by Veera Valimaki

yarn: Isager Strik Alpaca Merino 2

By the way, it looks like I am dangerously close to hitting my 10,000th view! In gratitude, I do believe I will have to host a give-away.. yarn? pattern? To be determined very very soon.

Happy knitting!