A Search for That Perfect Base and Perfect Yarn (and Colors!)

I know a search for the perfect square and the perfect yarn (and colors!) can be a long (but fun!) challenge for many. I’ve been there before (and am still there!), drooling over the photos on Ravelry and Face Book groups.

But when I saw the Enchanted Garden by Courtney Laube of Spin a Yarn 32, I knew I found a perfect square for one of my Around-the-Bases CAL afghans (yes, I am making a few more, although I have already made 4 prototypes…). I’ve loved Sophies’ Garden by Dedri Uys and Crocodile Flower by Joyce Lewis, so the 2 combined together was my dream-come-true.

Deciding on the colors and yarn was not as easy for me. I first tried it with shades of pink and purple.

I liked it a lot but it was a little too “sweet” for my taste and I thought I would want more of fall/winter colors. So I tried one with my favorite color – maroon.

But I did not have any gradient of maroon, so it looked too flat for me (Yep, I didn’t even finish it…)

So I went to 3 big box stores in town but sadly they do not stock too much yarn in a small Texas town when it is 100 F degrees outside. I did come home with some yarn for my daughter’s afghan (I Love This Yarn, worsted weight yarn from Hobby Lobby) and decided to give it a try with that yarn.

I actually love the colors on this one but it is still too summerly for me and it was also getting really big (15 inches after the circle part). Then I got side tracked a little and started wondering how much yarn it will take to complete one with a center block this big.

How Much Yarn Do I Need to Buy?

This is a very hard project to estimate the yardage as a lot depends on the size of the center square, yarn weight, tension, etc. But just as a ballpark starting point, I tried to figure out how much yarn I would need, if I were to make one with the same center square as my featured sample (with Tropical Garden) using different weight yarn. I googled and did some crazy math and came up with some rough estimates.

	1 – Fine, Sport	3 – Light, DK	4 – Medium, Worsted	5 – Bulky, Chunky
With 1 color	1,785 m (1,952 yard)	2,400 m (2,625 yard)	2,650 m (2,898 yard)	2,800 m (3,062 yard)
With 12 colors	2,550 m (2,789 yard)	3,400 m (3,718 yard)	3,800 m (4,155 yard)	4,000 m (4,375 yard)

*ROUGH estimates of yardage needed for the CAL with Tropical Delight as a center square

Perfect Yarn and Perfect Colors

Back to my search for the perfect colors… After not being able to find the yarn I like in the shades I wanted, I searched on the internet and was drawn to Stone Washed by Scheepjes. I have never used this yarn before but I’ve been in LOVE with their Cotton 8 and Linen Soft. I also saw that some of my favorite designers (Dedri Uys and Julie Yeager) have new projects  using this yarn. And to my delight, each color has its own depths of color (stone washed part) that will be perfect for what I was looking for!

(I picked my colors in this ghetto way of cutting the printed colors and putting them together to see if I like the color way…)

It looks like it is similar in weight and gauge as Cotton 8 that I made my CAL sample with, so I am going to order a total of 20 skeins (2,600 m) in Moon Stone (801), Corundum Ruby (808), Garnet (810), Rose Quartz (820), Deep Amethyst (811), Lilac Quartz (818), Yellow Jasper (809), New Jade (819), and Canada Jade (806). Cannot wait for them to arrive!