Paint the whole world with a Rainbow

Up above the streets & houses, rainbow climbing high, everyone can see it smiling over the sky...

(Sorry to anyone who wasn't a child in the UK in the early '80's! Rainbow was a childrens TV program!)

Rainbows seem to be filling my week.  We had a beautiful one arching over the South Wales valley in which I live on Monday.

Then I bought this beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful hand dyed yarn in my local yarn shop.  Isn't is just hypnotically gorgeous?  I have no idea what to make with it - it will no doubt be something for my niece, but I just couldn't resist it! It's hand dyed here in the South Wales Valleys by 'Wooly Wumpkins'.  She has created a range of variegated and solid shades especially for my local yarn shop - Hurleys Haberdashery in Pontypridd.

I do have a soft spot for brightly coloured variegated yarns - I just can't resist them.  I order quite a lot from Bohemia Fibers in the US too - she makes some beautiful coloured yarns. But I do struggle to find things to make with them. Intricate lace & cable patterns get lost in the colour changes & I'm not keen on the pooling effect you get over large areas.  Crocheting with variegated yarns can be very effective with long colour changes, but if the length of yarn covered by each colour is quite short, then you can end up with only a stitch or 2 before the colour changes which can look odd!

I tend to use variegated yarns as accents - I love to pick one colour from the yarn & use that as the main colour of a garment with a few stripes of the variegated, or use to to edge something, or my new favourite thing in the world - "fake isle"!!! (fair isle effect but using one solid colour & one variegated).  I'm still quite new to this knitting with 2 hands though so my tension isn't great - don't expect me to be showing off too many fake or fair isle patterns on here for a little while yet...

Talking of sharing patterns, I have another one I'll be sharing on Thursday (I would have waited until Saturday but the in-laws are coming to stay for the weekend - it would be a bit rude of me to sit here typing while they visit!)

It is my husbands cousins birthday on Thursday - she's a fellow knitter, crocheter & generally lovely human being!  She's far younger & cooler than me & is into yarn-bombing...we may be doing a joint yarn-bomb collaboration in July when we are having a family holiday in Snowdonia...but that's a tale for another post!  

On Sunday evening inspiration struck me & I designed & made her the most beautiful gift.  I'm so proud of it - I can't wait to show you!  But I will have to wait as she won't receive it until Thursday - we don't want her seeing it on here first do we?! 

Well...my husband brought home some salted caramel & belgian chocolate ice cream & it's calling me - can you hear it?  I'd best go release it from the freezer....hehehe :o)  Hope you'll come back & visit on Thursday when I share my latest pattern!

Love & hugs

Claire Clutterbug xx