We are pleased to be a stop on the blog tour for Louise Zass-Bangham's new pattern collection, Palette, featuring the Painted shawlette and Fresco shawl.

Painted is a long, narrow triangle. It uses 400-440 yards of fingering weight yarn and is easily adaptable to use up the full amount you have on hand. 

Fresco is a deeper triangle worked in DK or worsted weight yarn and requires 500-550 yards - which is perfect for one skein of Yowza!

I know variegated yarns, while irresistible in the skein, can be a challenge to work with. I am always delighted when a talented designer comes up with a new and interesting way to highlight these yarns. Louise has found a great stitch pattern that really lets the individual pops of color stand out.

I thought I would talk a bit about how I get inspiration for some of my colorways - specifically Berlin and Gal Noir, which Louise chose for her pattern samples. My inspiration for the Berlin colorway was a photo I received from Martina Behm who was designing for the Knitting Tour. It was a night photo of Berlin that was a dark night filled with lots of neon and garish lights from signs and headlights. It had an excitement that one feels when you are in big cities at night!  I wanted the colorway to reflect that same feeling.

The way Gal Noir developed was a bit different. As many of you know, I have repeatable AND non-repeatable Babettes. But how does this happen? It's tied to the fact that I have two parts to my dyeing practice. The first is production dyeing, which generally includes monochromes, but also colorways that I dye in small batches which become the repeatable Babettes. The other part of my dyeing practice is what I think of as artistry - it is a time when I get to play with color in ways that I do not track what dyes I am using. This could be called my reward for the hours I spend standing at the dye table. Gal Noir was originally created in this playful way, but I was actually able to figure out what I had done, and so it moved into the repeatable Babette column.  

And the name - Gal Noir? It is a play on the Guy Noir character from the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. She is a sultry lady of the night!

Back to the playing with color and dye. The benefit of this play is that I am able to develop many small batches of yarns that are one of a kind, even within the batch. And the results can even be a surprise for me. Sometimes I do not see yarns I have dyed again until they are twisted, especially when we are pushing hard for a show! 

So, in honor of these new patterns, we're going to do a triple giveaway! Post a comment here and we will randomly select someone to receive a skein of Berlin in Yummy 2-Ply and one who will receive a skein of Gal Noir in Yowza.

We'll also give away a download code for Louise's Palette pattern collection. Be sure to post a comment here on the blog by Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at midnight PST and we'll let the winners know on Wednesday!

Edited to add: I've just emailed the winners--congratulations, Susan, Suzanne G, and SJ! And thanks to everyone for your lovely comments.

The next stop in the Inspiration Knits Blog Tour is Yarn & Pointy Sticks, who will be posting on Tuesday. Check out all the rest of the stops on the Tour, which we've linked below, and be sure to check out the KAL in the Inspiration Knits Ravelry group, which starts Wednesday.

Tuesday 24 March: Inspiration Knits

Wednesday 25 March: Yarn in the City

Thursday 26 March: Knitted Bliss

Friday 27 March: Knit with Attitude

Monday 30 March: Miss Babs

Tuesday 31 March: Yarn & Pointy Sticks

Wednesday 1 April: SweetGeorgia Yarns

Thursday 2 April: The Golden Skein

Friday 3 April: Fyberspates