Long Beach is up at the top of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Tito and I drove up there in July 2011, as part of our annual Canada Day road trip. We arrived at sunset, and the light was spectacular. In fact, we spent so much time shooting, immediately after driving into town, that we neglected to find accommodations (Tofino is a major tourist destination) and ended up sleeping in the Ford Fiesta we had rented, parked at Long Beach. True story.

The colours were out of this world though. The pink of the sky, the grey in the sand, the dark shapes on the horizon, the texture the water had created on the ground, the tide pools, full of life. We were captivated.

Next months club colour draws from this magical place, and of course I chose to pair it with my ombré yarn; in my mind, the natural answer to all things sunset.

Pink, fading to a pale pink, to light grey, with a hard hit of slate grey right at the end, on a generous 420 yard skein of Killarney Sock.

Whichever way you wind the yarn, it’s a beautiful combo. Incidentally, it’s also a bit reminiscent of this years Pantone colours.

Lovely combo, n’est pas?

The pattern, which is still in the works, was inspired by the shape of the tide pool and the texture of the sand in the foreground of the photo. It’s a long, asymmetrical shawl, mindless to knit, with a curved edge along one side, designed to use up every last yard of the skein for a full expression of the gradient.

FO photos of the shawl will be coming out soon :) The kit will be available starting in the first week of April for the usual three day span. What do you think? Was sleeping in the car worth it? (We thought so.).