Sometimes I like to come up with something fancy and complicated. Other times I like making a simple knit that shows off the yarn. When I was swatching for Impressionist Stripes, I was going for something simple that would let the beautiful colours of this gradient set play together (Sweet Paprika Yarns Elora in Wind in the Willows).
What I wanted was an effect like I’ve seen in Impressionist paintings, where the colours are together and mixed, and almost look like something else. After some experimentation I settled on a relatively simple 4 row pattern based on seed stitch, but with slipped stitches as well. Only one colour is used at a time, and the pattern is easily memorized.
So far so good. I was happy to note that while one side was almost wavy, the other side was striped. Perfect! It’s attractive on both sides.
This fantastic yarn was dyed by Sweet Paprika and I snapped it up at last year’s Toronto Knitters’ Frolic. What makes it special is that it is from a limited batch sourced from Canadian Rambouillet-cross fleeces and spun at a Canadian mill.
I recruited some test knitters & my friend Yvonne (of Yvieknits Yarn) knit up a sample using her mini-skeins:
Later on I was going through the stash and I realized that I had the perfect set of colours in Knit Picks Palette to make a *larger* version. I used almost all of each of the balls to make this longer version that can be wrapped cosily:
Or it can be doubled and used scarf-style:
Thanks so much to my lovely friends Rosanne and Janet for helping out with the photo shoot.
Impressionist Stripes is now up on Ravelry for $2. 
Beautiful scarf Nat.