Knits That Fit #2: Colours and patterns

I have a lot of fabric, but I actually only have three colour palettes in my total fabric stash and everything I have bought fits into one of them, more or less. I'd love to say this was totally planned and deliberate, but actually it's because I only like wearing a very limited number of colours and so that's all I buy. You're never going to see me in yellow, for example, or orange, or pink or a lot of pastels because my skin tone is yellow-ish and they make me look like death. I like saturated colours and high contrast because I have very high contrast colouring (dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, ultra pale white skin). Generally, I keep all my crazy colours and prints for my bag-making stash. I don't dislike wearing prints, but it's always been tricky to get prints I like that happen to be on garments I like when I go shopping, whereas solid colours are easier to find.

Going back to just my garment stash, these are my three colour palettes:

1. Brown/beige, red and green (not red and green together, but each paired with brown/beige)
2. Black, grey, white and purple
3. Blue and turquoise

Believe it or not, this description represents my new, broader range of colours. I went for years wearing literally nothing but black, white and blue. Then I lost a lot of weight and did a wardrobe makeover, and this is what I moved on to. Not a BIG improvement, I have to admit, but it's more than I used to wear. The nice thing about these palettes as they stand is that they do cross over as well. I can wear red with black, and green with grey, and turquoise with brown or black or grey, and so on. I like to wear neutral "bottoms" and keep colour on my upper body.

The next part of my sewing plan is all about knits, especially knit top layers. I'm thinking short and long-sleeved tops, cardigans, wraps, etc. For the time being, because my blue knits are a bit overwhelming in number, I am going to concentrate on colour palettes 1 and 2, which I have fewer of overall and more ideas what to do with.

Colour palette 1: Brown/beige, red and green.

I don't have many knits in this category really. I don't wear brown/beige next to my face much and though I'd really like a nice forest green or a sort of dusty sage knit, I haven't found a colour/price combination that I like yet.

What I do have is two red cotton jersey knits, which I LOVE. I'm going to make the free Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono Tee out of the print. I have 2m and the pattern only requires 75cm, so I should have enough for something else in the future. I'd like to make Simplicity 2369, the wrap top, with the red solid but I am not sure I have enough skills for that pattern yet. I paid a bit more for this knit, so I will definitely muslin first.

Colour palette #2: White, black, grey and purple.

The top fabric is hard to make out why it's in this category, but those dots on the cream background are actually little grey/silver squares with a tiny bit of sparkle. I am going to make view A of Simplicity 2773 with some of it (I have 4m and that pattern only requires 1.5m). Then, one of the two small purple pieces is going to be the little wrap top in the latest Ottobre and the other I think I will make into another Ottobre top (without the little rose things though). The figured piece of purple, of which I again have masses, I LOVE. There's a part of me wants to make a jersey dress from it, because the drape is so beautiful, maybe the dress version of Simplicity 2369, but that seems maybe a bit ambitious as well. It's hard to tell how hard that pattern is, and my big problem is that I think I need to grade between sizes, and I am right at the very top of the sizes that are in my envelope, and a second envelope would be another £10. :|

Meanwhile, I have eight different knits in my blue/turquoise pile, most of them quite large pieces. I've really got no idea what to make with any of them. I have one small dark turquoise which could be a repeat of either of the Simplicity patterns if they work out. My favourite is a huge 5.25m piece of figured silver and duck egg blue. It's so thin that I don't know what it will make that won't be indecent, though it too would make a fantastic dress of some kind as it drapes so prettily.

However, I am (still!) waiting for my overlocker ball point needles -- they are now telling me they are out of stock, which is irritating. So while I am thinking about all these knits, I can't actually sew any of them! I do need to get on with my black wool skirt. It's going to be a bit of a squeeze getting the skirt out of the fabric, as it decided to shrink horribly in the wash.