@Rechelle Rendall thank you 🥰

@Betsy Moll me too :)

Hi Heather. I can relate to this. I’ve been knitting for almost sixty years too. My mum taught me when I was about five and I’ve knitted most of my life. But think about it - back then the only way to learn about knitting was what someone else showed you or from figuring out the pattern of reading a book. So you were limited to what patterns you came across or what your teacher knew. It’s really only been in about the last ten years, and the advent of digital online platforms and the internet, that people from all over the world have been able to begin sharing their knowledge and techniques. There has been an explosion of people making a living from creating new patterns and coming up with new ways of doing things. If there were people knitting brioche or top down in the round, or many of the other new techniques I’ve discovered in recent years, I just never came across them back then. So much of it is all new. But I think it’s a good thing. It’s allowing me to still be challenged after 60 years. Still find out new aspects of the craft. Still grow in my capabilities. I think it’s a case of reframing it. It’s not that you’re somehow failing as a knitter, it’s that you have so much more to expand into with all that experience behind you to back you up. It’s exciting! ❤️🥰 (and I’ve never explored steeking yet either).

Hello and welcome. I’ve been knitting for almost sixty years but have never come across the term ‘assigned pooling yarn’, which I had to look up. It seems it’s a variegated yarn that’s been dyed in such a way that it ‘pools’ in areas rather than randomly. I have actually knitted a hat and socks with that kind of yarn but didn’t know that was what it was called. I must admit that I’m fairly conservative with my yarn choices. I realise now I think about it that I prefer the interest in the garment to come from the pattern stitches or colourwork stranding than from the yarn itself. I imagine the yarn that pools in areas looks best with stocking (stockinette) stitching, which (for me) is boring to knit. I love the challenge of the pattern itself and stitch work can get lost in that unless it’s being used as the background with a solid main colour, and then it can look stunning. Thank you for helping me reflect on that. Always open to learning new things about the craft and myself! 🥰

The background colours really make the pattern pop. Beautiful. 🥰

I love the pale aqua colour of your yarn. It will look lovely.