Pretty in Pink Dreamy in Denim

I was at my LYS yesterday and found a copy of Denim People, by Kim Hargreaves. There are some lovely Rowan patterns in there, and the yarn comes in almost irresistible shades of denim. (I say “almost” because I was able to resist. The yarn is all cotton, and I was considering the ergonomic problems of cotton knitting.) The LYSO had a swatch of “Tennessee” (a medium blue denim) that I could not let go of.

Anyhow . . . in the book there was this amazing, oversized sweater — a dark denim blue — with what looked like white paint thrown and drizzled all over the sweater. Was the pattern knit into the garment with white yarn? No . . . upon closer inspection, I could see that some of the stitches are both blue and white. So, was the design painted on?

*larger image click here*

A quick look at the directions revealed that it was BLEACH. Now tell me, would you allow bleach anywhere near your just-knitted dark blue cotton sweater? OMG.

Well, we all know that some other artistic soul besides the knitter applied the bleach. Not that there aren’t lots of free-spirited and adventurous knitters out there, but this is a photo shoot, folks.

The sweater’s final effect is stunning. The process would be terrifying.