AtoZ Challenge D is For

Yarn: Today’s yarn was a no-brainer. This is Donald, a one-of-a-kind colorway, for a one-of-a-kind-man. I had this yarn custom dyed in honor of my grandfather (named Donald). RubySapphire Yarns was one of the first indie dyers I purchased yarn from on Etsy. I loved her colors and was also won over by the colorway names – people names! That makes it very hard to resist yarn that really has your name on it! I even purchased the Bekka yarn and made fingerless gloves – different spelling, but that’s ok, I loved the colors! One update had a beautiful colorway named Hope, my grandmother’s name. The colors made me think of her, and at the time my grandfather had recently passed away, so I contacted the dyer to see if they could dye something special, inspired by the ocean, as my Grampa loved boating and was a captain. I knit Hope & Donald together in a scarf that was originally intended to be a gift for my grandmother as a “keep him with you all the time” thing but I was a slow knitter with this pattern and when I finally finished it, it was a year after Nana passed. So now it’s MY “Keep ’em with you scarf” and I still have this skein, that I’m not sure I will ever actually knit. But I love that it is part of my stash. Here the yarn is next to Grampa’s Weather Rock (if it’s wet it’s raining, if it’s cool it’s cloudy, if it’s covered in snow it’s snowing… groan) and a dinosaur just because. 🙂

Pattern: Dark & Stormy by Thea Colman, another gorgeous cabled sweater. I love that it’s in a darker, slightly variegated yarn too.  So many cabled patterns are in lighter colored yarns, which I get because that shows the cables nicely, but knowing myself (and my kids) I would be so fearful of spilling something and staining it.