Lion Brand Notebook ®
Our sixth color of the year is the most unabashedly pink in the palette: Azalea. Once the cliche color of girlish femininity, pinks are being reclaimed these days. So an unapologetic pink, like Azalea, boasts empowered womanhood. Whether you prefer a pop of pink or choose to don it as your new neutral, Azalea will bring major charge to your projects this summer. Read on for our favorite Azalea kits & yarns, and also tips from our design team to make it your own.
June is for seizing the daytime hours, for warm weather that’s fully arrived, and for looking ahead to the summer season wearing rose-shocking-colored glasses. Since fashion is cyclical, this brightest pink has been a powerful call-out color. These days, it feels like a callback to the 80s, which of course, are really a callback to the 60s, when pop artists and designers first embraced hot pinks.
We’ve been thinking in pink for the better part of the 21st century. Just think of all the examples in our lexicon: ‘tickled pink’, ‘rose-colored glasses’, ‘pink slips’, and more! If you were to trace the roots of our fascination, you’d find yourself in Paris in the 1930s, browsing fabric bolts with designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Running her hands over the textiles, she was arrested at a hue she dubbed ‘Rose Shocking’. And the obsession with pink was born.
Trenton Triangle Shawl (Crochet)
Here at Lion Brand, we’re year-round crafters, so we don’t let warmer weather put us off our yarn. Whatever projects you choose for your Azalea-prone crafting, we’ll offer some styling tips to maximize usability. Also, as with all our Colors of the Year, there’s a spectrum of possibility. From deep magenta, to neon pink, to bubblegum, they all fall under the Azalea moniker. In addition, knitting or crocheting with such a vibrant color makes your stitches fly. Even if you’re crafting now to wear later, your piece will be imbued with the memories of easy summer crafting.
To start us off, our Serene Shell (Crochet) in Cotton Bamboo is an extremely versatile piece. You can wear it through the summer months, and then layer with a long-sleeved shirt into the fall. In addition, customers love the drape of this Lion Brand Collection Cotton Bamboo, which makes it ideal for this sleeveless tunic.
Trenton Triangle Shawl (Crochet)
We all love shawls for travel projects, which makes them an excellent WIP for the summer months. The tone-on-tone Trenton Triangle Shawl (Crochet) can be worked on planes, trains, and automobiles, or from the comfort of your own AC if you’re taking a ‘stay-cation’.
This project uses our Lion Brand Collection Superwash Merino, which is a beautiful 100% Wool fiber. For a shawl with an open weave stitch, it couldn’t be more perfect! You’ll be knotting this shawl around your neck to achieve a pop of color on any cooler day, and it can wear easily into fall, of course. Or, keep the tone-on-tone look going, and layer it over a matching top.
Textured Super Scarf (Knit)
Next, something to craft now, and wear later. Just because you can’t wear it right away, doesn’t mean we don’t keep crafting in the summer months! Something like a super scarf is a fun & easy project to travel with (we liken it to the ‘beach read’ of crafting!), and you’ll look forward to working it into your wardrobe until the weather is right.
Our Textured Super Scarf (Knit) is bold, in color and style. Grab half a dozen skeins of Landscapes Yarn in Galaxy, and the color work will be taken care of by the color-striping of the fiber itself. Whether or not you live in a climate where this scarf will be right as soon as you cast it off, you’ll be wearing it soon.
Last (but certainly not least), our Tampa Top (Crochet). This funky pullover is an 80s throwback, in every way. The oversized silhouette calls back to all the powerful shapes we loved in that decade. Plus, graphic sleeve details that are somehow so on trend now, too. The yarn is Vanna’s Choice in Rose Shocking, which is one of the inspiration yarns for this Color of the Year.
From Adina Klein, our Creative Director: “Don’t be afraid of bright colors! Think of Azalea as a ‘new neutral’ and add a pop of it to your favorite hat pattern with a big fluffy pompom. Or take your favorite afghan and give it a refresh by crocheting a hot pink border around it. The great thing about yarn is that you can always pull it out and add your next favorite color of the year…”
Written with Adina Klein, Creative Director at Lion Brand
You must be <a href="https://blog.lionbrand.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.lionbrand.com%2Fcolor-of-june-azalea%2F">logged in</a> to post a comment.
Chelsea E Hahn
I love these color of the month posts. One of the things I love most about crochet is the variety of yarns and the array of colors. Crochet has been a place where I can exercise color creativity with abandon. I appreciate that this post encourages others to embrace colors.