Color Everywhere

 
My package from Elann came today, and what fun! All the yarns look so summery and lovely. I'm planning some summer shells, mainly with my old favorite Berroco pattern.
The top left is Katia Jeans.
Top right is an OnLine yarn which will be part of a belt, somewhat similar to one shown in VK's Winter issue and in this earlier post, which includes a picture. I will add other yarns to it, but I liked this base color.
At the center is one of Elann's new undyed yarns. It's a nylon Ladder Lace, and I think it will make up as a nice shell.
The bottom two are Schoeller yarns, which will be shells. They're similar colors, but one is coral and one is rose, and I like them both.

Anyway, that's the plan for now. Changes have been known to occur!

I also ordered a couple pattern leaflets, one from Berocco for their Silk yarn, which has a laced front cardigan with interesting stitch patterns, and I now find out that is it rated as Extremely Experienced. Who knew they even had a rating like that? I'll have to see how it goes. I scanned through it quickly, and it mainly looks like you have to do a lot of shaping on both sides of a piece at the same time, while doing pattern stitches. I hope it's not worse than that.

The Dale pattern book I ordered includes this cardigan, shown in two colors, which I just adore! It's very much a ladylike, dressmaker-suit jacket style, and as I've been told, and pretty much agree with, that's me. I like both the velvet ribbon whipped edging and tie on the navy, and the more cording-like edging on the tan.

I also got a couple more Bryspun circular needles. After extensive personal research, I have concluded that these are the quietest needles on the market. Practically silent in most cases. This is very important, as I get many complaints around here for knitting loudly (i.e. making tiny sounds now and then). Anyway, I've tried a lot of needles, and I really like these, besides the fact that they're quiet. Everyone told me that bamboo was the way to go, but they're no better than Addi's in my opinion. I love Addi's for knitting, but for silence, the Bryspun are the way to go.

I will leave you with a view of my earliest peony, which only opened yesterday, but already looks like it's seen better days. It's 90 today, and getting windy, so they may not last long. I have a couple more further from the house, and they open successively.