That's the Plan

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Like many of my fellow knitters, I fall in love with random skeins of hand-painted yarns.  Often there is no plan, no thought, only the feeling that I absolutely must have that skein of yarn. 

 I wanted to create a design that would serve as a plan for those beguiling skeins of hand-painted yarn that incite such passion in our souls. The pattern had to be doable for anyone from an adventurous advanced beginner to intermediate. 

When I think of the word, plan, I can’t help thinking of an experience my sister, Nancy, had. One time she went to the grocery store with her daughter for a few things and returned with wonderful fresh rolls.  Here is their conversation, which has coined a very handy phrase in our family.

As she unpacked, her husband said, “Oh, you got rolls – did you buy cold cuts to go with them?”

She said, “Nope”.

He said, “ Did you buy rotisserie chicken or something else to go with the rolls?”

She said, “Nope”.

Puzzled he asked, “So what is the PLAN for the rolls?”

She told him, “There is no plan for the rolls.  We were at the store, the rolls were fresh and smelled amazing, so we decided that we needed to bring the rolls home with us”.

Now whenever my sister and I discuss what our intentions are and we don’t have a clear plan, “We say there is no plan for the rolls.”

So here is my plan for the rolls....

In this pattern use of slip stitches moves the color around and play to its strengths.  It will work equally well whether a skein is wildly variegated or subtly hand-dyed. The stitch pattern creates a reversible effect that adds texture and depth.

The two row pattern repeat is easy to remember and easy to read (so you don’t have to keep track of rows).  It’s a perfect portable project.  We’ve tested this theory by knitting it in movie theaters, school concerts, and just about every where we went.

The pattern for Plan has been introduced in Part 2, Pam Grushkin Knits on Focus on Fiber with Ginger Balch. There is an exclusive Ravelry code for viewers to get it for free for a limited time.

I'd love to see what you knit up, please add Plan to your Ravelry favorites and/or queue!