shades of...

Back to the Suva situation, I had already made a couple of swatches, with the ‘surf’ a pale blue/gray and cream combination-it’s hard to tell what colour is predominant and it seems to change with the lighting. In my mind I wanted to use a contrast colour for the neckband at least - couple of reasons - manfriend has a very harsh beard/stubble, even though he shaves daily - it’s almost like a wire brush and I’ve noticed if he has a close-fitting neckline and a softer fabric, it gets abraded and brushed-looking so I hoped using a mercerized cotton, like Bonita or Cannele would make a harder-wearing neckband than the Suva which is quite soft. 

In my first swatch, I used light blue on one side and did the contrast rows in the ivory/cream shade.  After the wash and dry, decided I didn’t like the light blue - too different - so went with the ivory/cream/ecru colour for the swatch of the neckband. 

That seemed to have a peachy tint next to the Suva! And, of course, there’s that ROYA (running out of yarn anxiety) - my Pebbles used only 350g of the Suva but I’m doing this on T8 which will take more yarn so it’s always good to have a plan B!

BTW, the T9 swatch (pebbles), after wash and dry was 25 sts and 42 rows. This one, at T8, same pattern, is 28 sts and 54 rows - wow! That one number tighter makes a big difference!

I picked one of those ‘fancy ribs’ neckband from NBT, the one with the swung English rib…