My Field of Flowers Tote was Chosen as Craftys Award Finalist!!

I guess I should be a little more subtle or humble about sharing this, but I'm just too excited :)  The Craftys Awards are an online contest for the best craft submissions.  This was the first year of the contest and submissions were accepted in a variety of categories:  knitting & crochet, sewing & quilting, jewelry-making, home decor, and a number of other categories.

I submitted a few of my craft tutorials, and my Field of Flowers Knitted Tote was chosen as one of the ten finalists in the knitting & crochet category.  And I'm just thrilled!

Unfortunately, my tote was not chosen as the winner, but that's okay.  I'm still happy just to be chosen as a finalist.  The winner was a knit wedding dress that is truly amazing.  Congratulations to Stephanie Klose for her beautiful dress - and congratulations to all the 2014 Craftys Award winners!!

{Hand} Dye-ing for Something to Knit

I recently had the opportunity to take a yarn hand-dyeing workshop at a LYS, Yarn and Y'all.

The workshop was a lot of fun and I wish I had taken photos of the yarn dyeing process, but I was too busy enjoying myself to remember to take pictures.

We started out with about 440 yards of undyed merino wool in sock weight.  I told myself that I was going to use browns and blues for my yarn, and stay away from my favorites, purples and greens.  I wanted to create something different than what I usually buy.

photos taken from different sides on different days

But as you can see, I ended up still gravitating toward my usual pinks, purples, and greens.

And the yarn looks total different when balled

Despite falling back into my comfort zone, I'm still very happy with my resulting yarn.  Now, to pick something to knit with it!  I decided I wanted to make scarf or narrow shawl from my hand-dyed yarn.  I was thinking of something light and loose with lots of eyelets or a loose weave.  Here are my favorite choices:

Frisson:  I love the simple geometry of this shawlette.  This pattern is really what I had in mind when I thought about using my hand-colored yarn.

Hallayo:  This scarf pattern has been in my queue for a while.  I love this design, but really wanted to make more of a shawl than a scarf.

Sea Line Shawl:  This is your basic feather-and-fan design, but I think it would be pretty with the colors in my yarn.

Margosha Shawlette:  I'm leaning toward this pattern.  It has the eyelets and open weave that I was looking for.  I like the crescent shape of the design.  And I like how the short-row edging creates a little ruffle.

Which one do you think I should make?