It's been a long time--years--since I've done any stranded knitting, and since last fall the urge to try it again has been waxing and waning--but mostly the former. Late last fall, I paid a visit to the Educational Silk Museum of Como (Museo didattico della Seta); Como was a major center of silk fabric production, from the early 1800s until just a few decades ago. Although the silk throwing machines ("throwing" is the process which combines individual silk filaments into usable thread) and the damask weaving looms, with their punch-card controlled jacquard mechanisms (the cards reminded me of the punch cards for an old player-piano), were fascinating, my imagination was fired by the printing blocks and rollers on display.
And then there were the paintings I saw on 
the interior walls of a church we visited in Budapest, with gorgeous combinations of colors and simple- to-complex repeating motifs. So over a period of several months I worked up a few stranded designs; although I want to stick to the Fair Isle custom of only using two colors per row, and will probably follow some of the traditional Fair Isle principles for using color, it probably wouldn't be accurate to call them true Fair Isle designs. And then they sat on my computer for more months while I worked on other projects.
Finally, over the summer, I noticed that WEBS had put Classic Elite Skye Tweed on sale, and I remembered that I had four balls of that yarn which I had purchased with a 
design in mind, but never used--the orange, burgundy, brown, and deep green balls in the center of the photo. So, with the idea of using Skye Tweed for a stranded tunic-to-boot-length vest (buttoned? zipped? belted?-- haven't got there yet), I bought a bunch more discounted Skye Tweed, just picking colors I liked on the WEBS website, and purchasing fairly random amounts of each. Was this putting the "Isle" before the "Fair"? Should I have used colored sketches and worked out which colors I might want to use, and then how much of each I would need, before whipping out the ol' credit card? Should I have paused to think that I find most wools itchy, and chosen a superfine merino like Louet Gems instead? It does come in a slew of tasty colors, after all, and I even have the color card.
Ah well. I have what I have, and as long as Italian customs doesn't confiscate my Skye Tweed (I shipped it from the U.S. to Italy), I'll be swatching with what I have, and seeing how it goes.
Sorelle is finished, but the last couple of days have been gray and rainy, and I'm waiting for better weather to take some photos. And I've decided to give myself a break--a short one--on writing up the pattern, and instead have been playing with some...COLOR!
