Roy GB4

That actually stands for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. From my childhood – the way to remember the colours of the rainbow. We had one for geography – George Evans Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday and there was one for arithmetic that I believe is now politically incorrect.
Anyway, I made the mistake of asking my granddaughter, Rhiana, what she wanted for her birthday – she’ll be seven on Wednesday…Here’s the thing - I am a firm believer in ‘if you can’t handle the answer, don’t ask the question!’ or, if you’re asking the question, be prepared to do something about the answer!
So, what would you like for your birthday?
A rainbow sweater.
Well, that sounds okay – she’s been drawing and creating  a lot of rainbows lately – I should have just left it at that but no…I said, ‘like a rainbow going across your sweater?’ and I made a swooshing motion with my hand…
’No Grama, just straight lines of the rainbow colours.’ So, I made a sketch and showed her (OK, so I draw like a 7 yr old!). She took the paper from me and said, ‘I’ll show you.’ I didn’t dare ask what was going to happen to the sleeves because it dawned on me by then, if I questioned, she would probably have an answer I wouldn’t like!
So, we’ve got eight colours, sort of close to the same weight. Red Panama. Pink Bonita. Gold Panama. Yellow Mini Dina. Green Castoro. Royal Sable Crepe. Navy Panama. Purple Linen. Colour was the main criteria and then washability, and, not itchy, of course. After questioning the ‘gold’, I explained to her that I had no suitable orange in my stock. That was okay, but she wanted a pink in there too. I made  a swatch with 6 rows of each colour – could get really picky and say I need 6 rows of this and 7 of that, but come on! I am changing from T7 for the lighter weight ones to T8 for the Bonita, Castoro and purple linen. She approved, even though I was afraid she wouldn't  go for the texture of the Castoro- it's fuzzy and all the others are smooth, but she liked the feel of it.  Notice the size of the stripes in her sketch…900 ends to darn in? I don’t think so – I’m darning them in as I go, doing a free pass between colour changes so the ends are woven in at opposite sides…and if you think I’m going to worry about symmetry or where the colour repeat starts or ends, fuggedaboutit! We’re making a rainbow sweater for a 7 yr old! She’s ‘helping’ along the way, pushing the ‘train’ halfway across from her side, counting the rows and letting me know which colour to use next and making sure the gate is closed after the colour change. I am hand feeding the yarn – it’s easier to have the 8 cones on the floor rather than re-threading each colour…
I already feel like I’m McGuyver-ing it!