I’ve been doing some very gentle plotting this past couple of days as a result of trying to deduce what I actually think about my autumn/winter clothing and how that affects my knits. Thus far, I have concluded that I am good for skirts but a bit light on trousers for what is, essentially, trouser-wearing season – that will be the next big thing I need to rectify. Mind you, I was reading an advert for Gor-Ray skirts in a vintage issue of Vogue Knitting yesterday and that gave the advice that there is nothing keeps you as warm as a skirt in the cold winter weather. I often find that to be true, especially if it’s a good wool skirt, fully lined, cut with plenty of fabric, and worn with thick tights.

However, trousers are good, too, and I know I want to buy the navy trousers that match my perfect navy skirt plus something a little more cheerful which I think will be a pair of cords. The colour of the cords is going to require me to raise my plotting to Guy Fawkes’ level which is beyond me at the moment. I think it will be a close-run thing between Aubergine and Rust, although I haven’t entirely dismissed sage green.

A lot of my effort (which, let’s admit it, has been quite minimal) has been centred on the purple skirt in my photo which is supposed to be a great match with my Grape Fade Rimini cardigan, although in reality it is an okay match rather than a great one. It’s going to need to pull its weight through the coming seasons, though, and it won’t do that unless I have some more things to wear with it. I have found it works well with my Helsinki Jumper which is an interesting turn-up, but not so well with the cable front cardigan even though purples and golden yellows are a classic combination. It wasn’t until I started looking through my existing wool stash to see what kind of shades would work with it that I discovered how admirably it co-ordinates with Noodle Soup Yarns’ Vivid Firmament hand-dyed colourway. A knitted collar of some design is a possibility.

I also checked it against samples of some of the wools available on cones from Woolyknit and I like how both Foxglove and Heather look against it. I am leaning towards Foxglove as a shade to use for the lace-panel v-neck jumper I wrote about here. Heather is an almost exact match to this skirt, but I can’t quite bring myself to like it because I had marked it down as a very odd shade on the card before I ever looked at it against the skirt. This particular range of coned yarns knits to 4-ply weight, with most colours made up of two plies of the same shade spun together. However, this one is made up of two very distinctive plies – one is burgundy and the other quite an indigo blue. Now the fabric of this skirt has a very definite blue thread in it too, which is partly what makes it challenging to work with, so it’s obvious that Heather would be a really good match. I’m sure Heather would look super knitted up, but I can’t quite get myself past the look of the sample.

Summing up, to date my plan is to make the following items, ideally before Christmas, although that might be a tall order:

• Sleeveless top in navy blue (DK weight)
• Some kind of 4-ply jumper or cardigan in the paler blue Merino yarn
• Lace-panel v-neck sweater in Foxglove (DK weight)

I am still pondering the vintage cardigan/jacket pattern but I’m not entirely sure where I’d want to slot this in, and I fully intend to knit my big pink jumper, possibly using the Rose Mix wool you can see on the shade card. That would also work brilliantly with this purple skirt as well as my navy basics.

I hope your week has been good and that you’re making some progress, whether that be in your works or in your plans and schemes.