Using my head

Made this beret out of Twilley's Freedom Spirit - took me 5 days, and this was the week I returned to work after mat leave! Very quick knit. I love this yarn too - the second photo shows the colours quite well.
And here are some photos of my foray into Fair Isle design. I ordered yarn a few weeks back from Jamieson and Smith. After looking at the yarns in real life, I chose these colours and made a design on paper (It's for a vest/waistcoat for Betsy, by the way. I bought her a t-shirt that is dark grey with a turquoisy stripe, and I wanted to girly it up a bit by putting those colours together with some pinks in a little matching vest).

It needs some reworking, because although I like my pattern, it doesn't "pop" out against the background greys as much as I'd like. I read the article in the Winter 2006 Knitty by Julie Theaker, which recommends looking at one's colour designs in black and white to see whether the values of the colours look pleasing together; when I scanned my sample in black and white (bottom picture) it became really obvious why the design wasn't looking good. I had put colours together that were way too close in value.

The upshot is that I'm going to order a couple more of the undyed wool shades, so that I can have a little more variation in the backgrounds; I'm also going to switch around the backgrounds I already have so I get a little more contrast. I do think the design has potential though - watch this space for developments.