skipping the pale transistions - going straight to the intense!

for the past few days in MN, we have had an incredible thaw and it is reviving my thoughts on spring like color combinations and that ever challenging question of WHAT to do with yarn, associated with cold temp items like sweaters, hats, mittens, when the temperature crawls up?

i'm like many other crocheters and, i assume, knitters too.  in my soul is that bittersweet smell i link to melting snow and the scent of exposed moist grass.  i love what it means - that the long, cold darkness of winter is finally leaving - but i hate what it means also - that i will be forced to choose between the sedentary activity of my yarnie passion and the warm feeling of the sun on my skin, the air on my face, and the tingle of enzymes in my muscles as i spend every waking moment engaged in some outdoor physical activity.

on the up side, it also means working with cotton, silk, bamboo in colors that energize.  sunny yellow not an autumn maze, sky blue, not a grey windsor, mango instead of the orange of fall, pink instead of a rusty red.  it is a substitution that i love, not because i love those colors any less, but that when i combine the spring pallet, it makes me want to drop my hook and rush outside.

this year, i have decided to combine the winter theory of the scarf with the materials and colors of the spring.  after all, the temps are not hot yet, just not freezing, and my long skinny neck still needs a light cover.  i'm not a pastel gal, unless they are combined with the more intense colors that i CAN wear.  i also want to move toward some intense juxtapositions - this is what i am shooting for: