Nihon Vogue - Parade of Sweaters

During the celebration for the final class of Year One, each student displayed a few or all of their finished garments. It was astounding to see the different designs, stitch patterns, fibers, colors and textures. It is humbling to think of how far each of us has come on this journey called Nihon Vogue. No doubt, this past year has been time consuming, stressful and sometimes frustrating but... those moments have been translated to real experiential learnings and pride. We have bonded as a group around a collective experience and lifetime friendships have been forged. Jean is a wonderful instructor - extremely knowledgeable and very patient. I am so grateful she makes the trek to Seattle from Vancouver, British Columbia to teach this class and offer this unique opportunity to those of us in the class.

Interesting enough, I have a huge stash of yarn but kept going back to my 220 and Heathers from Cascade Yarns for most of my Nihon Vogue projects. I love doing texture work and I have found that yarn to have the widest range of colors in jewel and muted tones as well as enough yardage in a skein to produce a heavily textured garment. The color of the Cascade Quatro yarn (9436 I think) I knitted Project 8 up in is striking. Several people told me (while I was knitting that garment in public) that the color and texture was beautiful. I prefer bright jewel tones to earth tones or muted colors but I must admit the color is stunning. It is a heather blend of pinky orange colors and not as bright as it appears in photo's. Several classmates were converted to trying Cascade yarn - Melinda's beautiful round neck cardigan in blue and Scottie's pullover sweater in a deep purple heather below show the results. I have some other heathered colors that I ordered during a recent sale at Webs that I am anxious to use in a Year Two or special design project - 2420 deep amythyst, 9451 a rich green and blue heather, 2419 orchid, 9452 aqua and 9407 rich celery green. I can't seem to stay away from purples, pinks and greens and blues - which is why knitting an entire sweater in orange was such a feat for me!