FLASH from the past...
Once upon a time in a knitting galaxy far, far away, a young woman bought a bag of 1,000 beads...
They joined a bag of yarn, which had traveled from a far place, over mighty water.
These treasures were got at great hardship (~ 759 dinners of frosted flakes and skim milk...), and much scratching...
BEHOLD the FOLLY!
What's this to my wandering eye should appear! A Bolero! A Beaded Bolero! Hundreds of shiny black beads, all hand-threaded onto yarn and knit into the fabric, marching in swirls and flowers and more! Oui! Oui!
No, NO! One could add a thousand more beads and STILL not recover from the visual impact of the Hideous COLOR of the poor little Bolero!
Our intrepid girl knitter of long ago was so excited by the design and the fact she had finally scored some UK yarn, she forgot all about COLOR! The design, from a group called Artwork for Rowan, (shown only in a Black&White photo in the pattern book) was just too juicy to ignore! She was excited by the beads, the curves, the lone line of light blue edging the entire moss-stitch border.
She was too fresh a knitter to know that that body color suggested by the design group was, perhaps, NOT the color for her in fact might not be the color for most on the planet! She was just too polite to even think, let alone utter, the words: "WTF were they thinking?"
FLASH to the Future!
WTF were they THINKING!!! Hmm, that little knitter is no longer Fresh; (some might even suggest she might be smidge Ripe!). But now she KNOWS that she can substitute color to her heart's content! And she knows, she can sometimes UNDO her Folly! Why should this lovely piece be ignored year-after-year when the Summer Clothes make their grand appearance from their storage state.
Two boxes of Teal Rit dye later...
...and we have Lift Off!
...still not perfect - the color is a little striated - I washed the sweater before dyeing, but it still absorbed the dye a little unevenly (the story of my Dyeing Life thus far...) I was totally amazed by the finishing job I did (almost as hideous as the original mustard color!) and on the next rainy day, I will remove the sleeves, take in the side seams, and re-seam those sleeves...
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