Yarn Along: "Cooking For Picasso" and Library Cardigan

Yarn Along is a wonderful weekly link-up hosted by Ginny at the Small Things blog about two of the best things in life: books and knitting.

Reading: Yesterday I started an advance-reading copy of "Cooking for Picasso" by Camille Aubray, which comes out next Tuesday. I love Picasso's artwork, I love food, and I love this beautiful cover, so I instantly requested it when I saw it on NetGalley several weeks ago. It's a dual narrative, and one half takes place in the French Riviera in 1936, when 17-year-old Ondine is tasked with bringing Picasso his lunch every day while he's hiding out in a villa in the south of France. In present day, our protagonist is Ondine's granddaughter, learning for the first time that her grandmother -- whom she's never met -- had some sort of relationship with the famous artiste (just what sort of relationship I'm not yet sure). I love the author's vivid descriptions of delicious French food and the vibrant, beautiful French Riviera, and overall I'm really enjoying this novel so far!

Knitting: I finished my Cap Sleeve Lattice Top -- hooray! It's a bit too short, but I still love it. Pictures to come soon. I'm itching to do some more knitting, but I wasn't sure what to start. My favorite online yarn store, Mr. Yarn, is going out of business (sob!), which I discovered accidentally last week. They've been clearing out their stock since the end of April, so there wasn't much left, but I did find a few things I liked for 40% off and I ordered enough yarn to make three short-sleeve sweaters. But the yarn (a DK and two fingering weights) doesn't really go with any of the sweaters I had on deck to knit soon, so I've been cruising Ravelry trying to find the right patterns for the yarn.

In the meantime, I dug out this super-old WIP, my Library Cardigan (pattern: Shapely Boyfriend) that I started knitting in 2013. I ordered this fairly good-quality Debbie Bliss yarn on eBay and thought it was a lovely raspberry pink color, but when it arrived I was horrified to see it's more of a dayglo neon shade of pink. (The color is hard to photograph, and the picture doesn't do justice to the sheer brightness of the shade!) I started the sweater anyway, but when it came time to do the sleeves I set it aside because the pink was just too overwhelming and I didn't think I'd ever wear it. (And, lesson learned, I now thoroughly research yarn colors before buying any yarn online!)

But I'm planning to finish it now, three years later (even though I won't have any need for it while we're stationed in Hawaii since the yarn is aran and 100% wool), and I think the best way to tone down the blinding pink is to mix in a nice gray. I'm planning to use Malabrigo's polar morn colorway, but I don't have enough in my stash so I'll need to order another skein. My plan is to start knitting the sleeves in pink, then do an increasing gray stripe turning into solid gray for the forearm and cuff. The button band around the front panels still needs to be knit and I'll do that in gray as well. Hopefully it'll be balanced enough to be wearable. (You'll still probably need sunglasses to look at me from the back, though!)

P.S. I'm pretty proud of that coleus! I rescued it from the clearance rack at Lowe's for 50 cents, and the poor plant only had two tiny leaves, one mostly dead, clinging to its flimsy little stem. But it's doing pretty well now after receiving a bit of TLC. Maybe my thumb isn't entirely black!