Swedish Weaving: Pine Stand on rust monk cloth

Pine Stand pattern on rust monk cloth, 2012

Today's post is brought to you by my mom. In July mom and dad came for a visit during which mom and I took over the yarn section of a craft store. We both have a quirky colour sense but very different tastes. Mom had three colours of monk cloth with her: ecru, potato skin brown, and rust. I found a jewel-tone variegated yarn that worked well with all three colours but looked radically different on each colour. Mom was skeptical but bought my suggested colour. Mom worked up a sample in the car. Dad didn't like it at all. 

Pine Stand pattern on rust monk cloth, 2012

Mom, being the triple Type-A personality that she is, finished the afghan within two months using the Pine Stand pattern. It's gorgeous and has received such positive feedback that several people are hoping that she'll gift it to them. She gave the leftover yarn and the potato skin brown monk cloth to my niece to make a table runner. Darn. I had hoped that mom would use the same yarn with the two remaining colours of monk cloth. I'm curious to see the difference. Naturally after two months of stitching she wants to use new colours and weights of yarn for a while.

Pine Stand pattern on rust monk cloth, 2012

Note the nice details like the Italian hem stitch along the side and bottom edges of the afghan. Mom invented the ducks-in-a-row stitch just above the hem stitch row parallel to the fringe. 

Pine Stand pattern on rust monk cloth, 2012

Early in my textile training I witnessed a teacher spazzing out on a student for using variegated yarn in an embroidery project. That moment stuck with me and since then I've cultivated a snobbery against the multi-hued stuff, but I do concede that it works well in her afghans. Mom uses only variegated yarns in her swedish weaving and I'm curious to see how some of her projects would look if she were to use a palette of solid-colours.