What to Knit with it? Mulberry Silk, Dyed in the Ember Colorway

I have never been a red/orange kind of person.  Cooler colors have always been my favorite, blues and greens and even purples.  Pale colors, not jewel tones.  But somewhere along the way last year, I seem to have developed a love of red, and even — perish the thought — orange.  I really don't think of myself as someone who loves a blistering orange-red, but there you have it. 

To nudge my expanding color sense along, I've been working on developing a colorway right at the point where a brilliant, scarlet red turns seamlessly into a hot-sun-going-super-nova orange.  The sort of color we'll see if the Bardarbunga Volcano in Iceland goes on and erupts above the glaciers this week.  After several months of experimentation, I came up with Ember, my newest colorway.

Ember looks beautiful on every fiber I've tried it on.  It's a semi-solid colorway, so it should work for everything from socks to sweaters.  To test it out, I've dyed five skeins of DK weight Mulberry Silk, for a total of 560 yards of yarn, and now I'm off in search of a pattern.  Please leave a comment below if you have ideas, help, or advice for me!

Pattern used with permission of Anlin

TienMimi is a wonderful camisole pattern, written for a DK weight silk, and it would be perfect for the yarn.  I'm not so sure it would be perfect for me — I'm concerned I would cover it open too much because of the open neckline and lack of sleeves, but perhaps this is just the excuse I need to pull out my arm weights and get back to work! Make sure you check out the designer, Anlin's, fabulous Finnish Blog.  I'm also looking at the Liwi Top.  It's written for a silk/merino blend, so my silk yarn alone may not have enough elasticity to give it the shape it needs. And Avebury, a shawl by Kirsten Kapur, is also up for discussion.

I would love to hear your suggestions and thoughts for this yarn-in-search-of-a-pattern!  Help me decide what to knit with it.