I was curious how the two yarns would work together.  There is the thick, soft and heavily drapey aran, drapey because of all the alpaca and bamboo in it, and the thin and bouncy merino silk heavy-lacewieght.  I haven’t seen it in real life, but it seems to have worked!  It reminds me a little of those drop stitch oversized sweaters that were around in the eighties, kind of gothic/punk, usually in black and very easy to wear.

Anyhooo, there is yarn in the original blues:

and some other options I enjoyed putting together..

The complimentary yarn bases were dyed together, at the same time,  for each colour.  Can you see how the dye takes differently in the yarns?  How  the alpaca yarn looks softer in colour, and the merino silk yarn takes up the colour more vibrantly?  Interesting to have a direct comparisson, methinks.

And I had an aran sweater in my head with a grey body and maize fairisle yoke……

hmmmmm……

Ruth has other lovely stole, shawl and sock patterns, amongst other things, on her website and in her Ravelry store.

I’ve also been dyeing more yarn for the popular Damson Cowl pattern by Kirstie McLeod in issue 26 of  The Knitter.  It’s MC1002#2, Merino Cashmere dk, but you might also be inspired by the subtle colour changes in MC1009, or the bright MC1006….

Happy knitting

Coming very soon when I can get lots of time to sit and link!