Mason-Dixon Madness

Back last April or May, I impulse-bought a book from Crafters Choice. (Crafter's Choice? Crafters' Choice? Crap, I should know this, I'm a friggin' English teacher!) Something about the cover art spoke to me. I still don't know why I did it--I was a long-lapsed, not-very-skilled knitter--but I'm so glad I did.

Behold, the fruits of weeks/months of warshcloth knitting, Mason-Dixon style:

I've actually made a few more than this, but three are in use in our kitchen, two were given as hostess gifts, one went to my mom when I was visiting in October, and one was a birthday gift to our artist friend Heather. (How flattering it was to have her open and say, "Wow, I could never do that!") My favorite ones were black "background" and forest green bricks, with a one-stripe dash of a hot green/blue/yellow ombre (Sugar & Cream Summer Splash)

These are my holiday warshcloths:
Stripey,

and...wait for it...
My First Intarsia!!!!

I took a leaf from Kay's Warshcloth Madness (scroll down to June 2's entry) and tried my first little block of color...it is so fun. I'm fascinated by how the black background makes the color come forward while the white background makes each color recede.

I'm really on a black/white kick with the backgrounds, seeing how the various colors play together. No more matchy-matchy like I started with (orange ombre with orange background, etc). Besides the fact that you start to "lose" colors because the slip stitches sometimes don't show, it's kind of boring, kind of safe, kind of Dana. At $1.99 a ball, I can afford to be a little crazy! And I owe this pattern for teaching me to purl.