Swatch You Talkin' About Willis?

It is a universal knitting truth: Swatches lie.

Sometimes, though, swatches tell the cold, hard, inconvenient truth. Swatches say things like

"700 miles of stockinette in this color will make you look like a blotapatomus."

or

"This is not an appropriate yarn for a man's sweater."

or

"All the hard work of your beautiful cables will mean nothing after one wash."

or

"Surely you are not contemplating a knitted skirt for your rather amble hind end."

All sad, painful truths, none of which (thankfully) were uttered at my house this weekend.

In the case of this hemp swatch
the truth telling went something like this: "Dude, we are talking yarn investment here. Are you really prepared to make a $135 baby blanket?"

The hemp yarn is very nice. All the things I said about it before are true. When it comes right down to it, though, I am not prepared at the moment to make such a significant commitment of the yarn budget.

So I turned to the stash.

Cascade 220? Right out. (A [non-knitting] mother operating under "new baby" conditions cannot be trusted to insure the baby blanket doesn't felt.)

Dishcloth cotton? Nope, not this time. (Though there are baby bibs to make....)

Brown and black eyelash? Nope. Destined to be a hedgehog.

In the end, I knit several swatches and returned to a yarn that I have loved from the very first moment I held it in my hands. Yarn that, indeed, I knew I would love even before we met.Misti Alpaca's Pima Cotton Silk. So soft. So cushy. So full of good mojo from Kim and the International Scarf Exchange 3. So doesn't require a $135 investment. My only concern (and it is a minor concern) is that it wants to shed a little when I am knitting with it. I noticed that before, too, when I was making Kim's scarf but one good trip through the wash seemed to remedy that so I'm not going to worry about it.

I have decided to stick with the plan to do the Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Of course, this yarn knits to a very different gauge and on larger needles than the pattern calls for and will thus be a version of the Moderne Baby Blanket, but the adjustments should be pretty straight forward. I am very happy with this plan.

All that remains is making a decision on the palette. They are having a baby girl but I have decided against the pales and the pinks. I've decided springy and warm and still feminine. (I've borrowed these color pictures from the Misti Alpaca site.)

Option 1: Black, Lavender, Eggplant, Buttercream

Option 2: Black, Kiwi, Buttercream, EggplantWhat do you think?

Before anyone asks, yes, I have already made up my mind about the black. I know conventional wisdom and tradition dictate that a baby blanket should be black-free but I am throwing caution to the wind here. (And, yes, I realize how that statement reflects the absence of much excitement in my life.)

Today's Quote:

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” Edgar Allan Poe