top of page
Search

Spiral Colour Therapy!!

Updated: Aug 2

Festa Colorata means festival of colour, or something close to that. The creative people of SweetGeorgia gave this name to my spiralled scarf creation and it totally works because it is a colour overload kind of design. I like to think of it as spiral colour therapy...

This week I am running a pattern giveaway for this scarf - check out this link to my Instagram post for full details on how to enter. Entries close 5pm November 28th (PST), so be quick!


My scarf started in my sick bed some time ago with a square spiral. I needed something to occupy me so I gave myself a problem to solve. I asked myself how could I crochet a square spiral? ...and kept going until I had cracked it. (That was about 5 attempts - it kept going skewiff and losing its square shape! The first 3 "rounds" are critical to get right to ensure it's a square spiral and not a psychedelic blob spiral!!)



When SweetGeorgia Yarns asked for crochet accessory pattern submissions I answered the call with my square spiral inspired oversized scarf. SweetGerogia were particularly interested in patterns using their very awesome Party of Five sets of Tough Love Sock, and I thought this would work perfectly to make the most of their colour combos. My scarf needed to be BIG to make a real impression, and because all spirals may be too much, I included a panel of solid colour to peak out around the neck as a point of contrast.


Here was my original sketch - I had the English Bay colour way of Party of Five in mind with 4th and Vine for the solid panel when I pitched to SweetGeorgia - if anyone opts to make one with those colours I would totally love to see it!

And here is my mannequin "Betty" sporting the finished Festa Colorata. Pretty close to my concept sketch - I ended up with more spirals and less solid colour than my original idea because I wanted to use as much of my Party of Five sets as possible - when you invest in boutique hand dyed yarn, you don't want much wastage!

Party of Five sets are a preselected set of 5 mini skeins of Tough Love Sock, and the colour combos are so good it's hard to narrow down to one choice! The scarf requires two Party of Five sets and one skein full skein of Tough Love Sock. All the colour combining work is done for you - just pick a "Party" that makes you feel good and get two of them, then pick a tone within one of the Party of Five and find a Tough Love Sock solid in that colour. Easy!



I was thrilled to have my design accepted and couldn't wait to get my hands on the raw materials because I had been a fan of the "unapologetic colour" of SweetGeorgia for some time. Blueberry Cobbler was a new Party of Five colour way set which SweetGeorgia selected for my scarf, combined with the lovely rich Empress for the solid panel. Here they are laid out before winding in to balls - I immediately thought "rich blueberry dessert". Yumm!


It wasn't long before I got to work making spirals, in amongst my other pattern commitments. It was great because I could make a few spirals before work or after dinner, because each spiral isn't a huge time commitment. They just "fit in" to my life.


Joining them all together was fun, because suddenly it became one large block of cuddly soft fabric. Squish Squish!



photo by Josh Yong for Sweet Georgia Yarns

And adding the Tassels at the end somehow reminded me of childhood pompom making. Not too sure why though? I wanted the tassels to mainly feature the solid panel colour (Empress), and blended them with the left overs from the Part of Five sets. I really love how they turned out - don't you?

It's always a journey from pattern pitch to publication. My Festa Colorata is now on a journey all of its own, travelling around with SweetGeorgia to trade shows for a while before it finds it's way back to me. I am already mentally wearing it next Winter with my Hilo beanie - almost made for each other!


Happy Stitching!

Susannah (Peppergoose)




Note: Formerly known as Susan Walsh


Commentaires

bottom of page