Ashley’s Adventures in Knitting: Changing Charts & Colorwork Challenges

I cannot wait to cast on for our Agave KAL! So many gorgeous colors and textures combined in a fun and flattering sweater – I honestly don’t think Alison could have designed it any better. And that’s my problem…

I have a bit of a contrarian streak when it comes to picking project colors. I almost never knit a pattern in the sample color – even if I love it. I totally love the Agave sample. With all those beautiful jewel tones and intriguing geometric shapes, it looks fit for a tribal queen…or at least a fashionable knitter! But for reasons unknown, even to me, I’ve been determined to come up with an alternative color scheme. It’s been a tough few weeks of swatching. When I was too tired to knit, I started playing around in Excel (a much quicker way to make shapes and change colors).

Alison accepted the challenge, too, and not surprisingly came up with some great options. I came close to liking a swatch, but thought it would work better if at least one of the colorwork designs featured multiple colors. After a few more hours in Excel, my chart was totally transformed. Here’s the swatch I knit from it:

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I was conflicted, because it’s a large departure from Agave, but it really just makes me happy. I showed it to the rest of the design team and they encouraged me to stick with it. So I checked my math and realized I had to change the flower section slightly.

Here’s my reworked chart:

Here’s a new swatch I knit of just the flower section (using yet another color scheme):

So I think I’ll be knitting this chart in the blue swatch colors, but I’m not sure what Fuji color to use for the base…any suggestions?