Knitting Ferrule - Part I: Playing With Color.
by Jake Weaver
Read time: 5 minutes
“I believe anyone can wear any color or texture as long as you believe in the fiber story you are making.”
These words, from the foreword of Neons & Neutrals, flipped a switch inside me, and sent me racing through the rest of the pages and my yarn stash and picking out colors that tell my story.
Knitting - and more precisely, working at La Bien Aimée - taught me a new appreciation for color. I am constantly fascinated by the color choices made by all the experts I work with, and by observing Aimée’s commitment to storytelling through color, I have begun to build myself a more expressive wardrobe (stitch by tiny stitch.)
Florence Spurling’s original Ferrule color palette.
Ferrule by Florence Spurling is an intarsia pullover inspired by artistic mark-making, and uses four different marls using seven different colors. Marling is something I shied away from as a beginner knitter; I didn’t appreciate the dimension and richness of a mohair halo. Over time, I have come to realize that marling is one of the most unique tools we have at our disposal, so when I saw Ferrule for the first time, I knew that it would be my first Neons & Neutrals project.
Aimée’s yellow Ferrule color pallette.
As usual, the first step in choosing my palette involved looking at everyone else’s projects on Ravelry. I find that taking inspiration from other knitters can help me figure out which elements I want to bring into my own project. With Ferrule, I personally love the result of a low-contrast color combination as I feel it highlights the nuanced and rare beauty of Florence’s technique.
Ravelry users Javor1945, DrSabrina, and Waffles32.
For this pattern you will need a total of seven colors. In the original design, these are three fluffy lace weights (mohair or similar), three dry lace weights (such as La Bien Aimée Helix or Felix) and one light fingering (although Aimée used Felix in her palette and it worked great.)
The first Mohair Silk color I picked for this palette is one that has made quite a splash at La Bien Aimée HQ in recent months: Anemelilies. This colorway is the lovechild of two other colors, Anemone and Waterlilies, and can be a super diverse bridge color in so many different fades.
Anemelilies on lots of different La Bien Aimée bases.
Once I picked Mohair Silk Anemelilies as my starting point, I knew I had to incorporate Anemone, so I decided to use this color on Helix as I found Felix a little too bright for my intended moody yarnscape. Helix and Felix are sisters with the same weight and meterage, the only difference is the composition, so you can use them interchangeably whenever a non-fluffy lace weight is required (or held double to achieve a sport weight.)
Rather than include Waterlilies, which might pull focus from Anemelilies, I decided to match the aqua tone of Anemelilies with Seaglass. I am such a big fan of this color, it’s so clear and bright that it looks very much at home among other neons, but at the same time it somehow sits comfortably among neutrals, that’s why I decided to use Seaglass on both Mohair Silk and Helix.
Helix Seaglass and Mohair Silk Seaglass.
I still had two more colors to choose for my marls, so I decided to calm down these bright lilacs and aquas with some neutrals. For Helix I opted for the undyed base, the colorway French Grey, which I love for the way it highlights whichever other color you put with it. For my last Mohair Silk I was very close to picking a true neutral, but at the last second I went for Tickle, a lightly variegated silver base with a light dash of playful speckles in blue, yellow, orange, pink, and green.
For my final color, I decided to use Felix Avoine in place of a light fingering weight. I find that the Corriedale content in this base makes it very bouncy and voluminous (remember to always swatch whenever substituting different bases!) The Felix color I chose is Avoine, a beautiful neutral that is just warm enough to make the ribbing stand out from the rest of the design without overpowering the icy mermaid scale effect I’m trying to create.
The last thing to consider in this design is the placement of your colors. I decided to stick strictly to the same formula as Florence to ensure I would have enough yarn for my sweater, but you can of course go off-piste if you’re using scraps or have an abundant supply of yarn.
I started by choosing marl 4 (C5 + C7) for the ribbing, which I decided to knit in Mohair Silk Seaglass and Felix Avoine. This means Mohair Silk Seaglass will be C5 and Felix Avoine will be C7.
Mohair Seaglass, marl 4, Felix Avoine.
Now it’s time to choose marl 2 (C1 + C3 + C5). Remember, C5 has already been established as Mohair Silk Seaglass, so I now need to pick two Helix colors that will compliment it. I want to avoid pairing Seaglass Mohair with Seaglass Helix, so Helix French Grey and Anemone become C1 and C3.
Helix Anemone, marl 2, Mohair Silk Seaglass, Helix French Grey.
Next up: marl 1 (C1 + C2 + C4). In order to determine which Mohair Silk color will be C4, I have to think about which of my two remaining Mohair Silk colors will pair nicely with Helix French Grey and Helix Seagless. Personally, I think these two colors of Helix are the perfect light background to let the lilac in Anemelilies pop, so Mohair Silk Anemelilies becomes C4.
Helix French Grey, Mohair Silk Anemelilies, marl 1, Helix Seaglass.
Finally, this means that Mohair Silk Tickle will be C6, and it will be knit with Helix Seaglass and Helix Anemone for marl 3, which I think will look fantastic.
Helix Seaglass, marl 3, Mohair Silk Tickle, Helix Anemone.
I know some of you may be looking at these marls and thinking “oh goodness, they all look the same!” I admit, I was a little worried you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, so I did some very quick swatches to compare and was absolutely thrilled with the nuanced low-contrast result.
Don’t worry if this explanation sounds complicated, it will make a lot more sense when you spread your colors out across the table and pair them up like I did. I highly recommend getting a piece of paper out and drawing up a little table with your individual colors on the left and the four marls on the right.
Picking these combinations was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing with colors for a pattern. Even once you’ve narrowed down all your options to just 7 colors, the possibilities for creating different marls really is endless!
Here is my final list of yarns and their numbers:
C1: Helix French Grey
C2: Helix Seaglass
C3: Helix Anemone
C4: Mohair Silk Anemelilies
C5: Mohair Silk Seaglass
C6: Mohair Silk Tickle
C7: Felix Avoine
Now it’s time to cast on! Look out for Part II of Knitting Ferrule next month...