Koigu Journal

August 2014 Our first issue!

August will be over soon. Some people see this as an end. End of summer, end of freedom.
At Koigu Wool Designs we'd like to view it as a happy beginning.
A new season. A new school year. A new chance to create colorful, exciting projects in beautiful wools.
So we're introducing this Koigu Journal, which we'll send out once a month. In it will be a new pattern, hints and tips about choosing colors, ideas and suggestions for variations on the project and whatever fun, interesting, colorful bits we come up with!
This month's pattern is for a shapely but fairly simple garter stitch scarf.
It uses four pairs of bright magic marker Kersti colors, plus one for the edge.
You can find more of these colors in Kersti Landra's Highlighter Pullover, which can be found in Koigu Magazine 6, just out now!
It changes direction, picks up stitches and only binds off at the very end!
The style is reminiscent of the bold, clean, fun style of early sixties fashion, so we're calling it the Super Mod Scarf.
The sample is worked using two different colors for each section. You'll want them to have enough contrast not to blend into each other.
You could also work with just two or three colors, as in the first alternate color photo. It's best with this simple color choice to have each color share something (purple and pink here) but also enough variation so they don't get lost.
But what about taking a deep breath and using a bunch of colors? Take a breath and play with combinations! Look for a bit of unity (as in the second alternate color photo of several stippled dyelots), like brightness, or one repeated bit of color. But maybe add in one or two odd, unexpected choices.
Perhaps you'd rather go for a theme: strident marker colors, as in the sample, or autumnal shades, as in the bottom photo. Or maybe the colors of saris, or eggshell colors, or rainbows, or various shades of red! 
We want this monthly Koigu Journal to be not just a pattern of the month, but an exploration of how you can also make your projects exciting, unusual, sophisticated and just plain fun.
We'll be back next month!