When people walk into my office/yarn room for the first time and see all of my yarns on the shelves their initial reaction is always something like: "Wow! Look at all that colour!" Almost all of my colourways are pretty intense and bright, some of them extremely so. But occasionally I do dye more gentle, subdued colourways. This weeks TFA Tuesday inspiration is a beautiful Ishbel shawl knit by pirateygoodness (on Ravelry, blog) in my very understated Sand colourway. You can find her project page here, and blog post here.
I'm usually drawn towards the more intense colours, and when I developed this colourway I had thought of it as a really good complement, a nice neutral base to pair with other, brighter colourways for colourwork projects. I love how it looks on it's own as well, but I usually have a hard time reining in my need for brightness and typically chose a brighter shade for my personal projects. But I just love how calm and appropriate this shawl looks in this lovely, subtle shade. Very pretty, and a reminder that sometimes, elegant and subdued is better than bright and attention grabbing. I used this new-learned restraint today when I finally threw out a bunch of bright, sparkly eyeshadows that I had been hoarding for years, I'm embarking on a more elegant and understated look!
