Persian Dreams- A Worsted Weight Journey

At the beginning of the summer, I decided that I wanted to take on a larger, more complex project than I'd ever done before. I also wanted to work on my multiple strand colorwork in preparation for a fair isle pattern that I've been drooling over. So I set off to Ravelry with an idea of what I wanted, a large project with a lot of colorwork, and started browsing the blanket and sweater pattern archives. I didn't find anything that caught my attention until I started browsing Facebook and saw a post from Jimmy Beans Wool. It was a blanket pattern called Persian Dreams that was created by femininebydesign, and it looked like a quilt, except that it was completely knitted. I fell in love with the bright pops of color and the unique shape of the blanket. It seemed like the perfect pattern, so I took the plunge and purchased it; you can check the pattern out and purchase it here. There is a fingering version of this blanket, but since the blanket is made up of a series of hexagons grafted together I made the decision early on that I didn't have the patience to work with one hexagon for the amount of time that fingering weight yarn requires. If you're interested in that particular version of the blanket, purchase it here on Ravelry.

The worsted weight blanket has, so far, been the perfect fit for me. I'm currently on my third hexagon, and I love watching the patterns unfold as I knit along.

The yarn that I decided to use for my main color was Lion Brand's Fisherman's Wool in the color Natural, and for the contrasting colors I've been using Plymouth Yarn's Encore Colorspun in a variety of colors. Instead of using multiple strands of different colors, I elected to use the just one color per hexagon since this was my first real foray into colorwork. The Encore has a gentle color shift throughout, so it ended up being perfect for each different octagon. I chose seven different colors of the Encore, which are as follows: #7991, #7761, #7794, #7766, #7760, #7990, and #7767. I bought the Fisherman's Wool at my local Jo Anne's, and the Encore Colorspun off of Amazon. The needles that I've been using on my hexagons are a size six, which is one size up from the suggested size.

I'm including pictures of the blocked hexagons that I've already finished, and I'll update this post with more as I finish the other hexagons! Thanks so much for reading, and happy knitting!

This is the first hexagon that I completed, the MC is Fisherman's Wool in Natural, and the CC is Encore Colorspun in color #7991. I love the darker blue that comes out on the outer edges of this particular hexagon!

This is the second hexagon that I've completed, the MC is Fisherman's Wool in Natural, and the CC is Encore Colorspun in color #7767.