swatching for sagebrush

When I talk about being inspired by sagebrush, this is exactly the blue-gray-green palette and undulating texture that I want to capture:


I've been thinking a lot about how to turn this into a knit fabric. Remember, this is the yarn I'm starting with: a tussah silk and wool blend from La Lana in subtle hues of sky blue and celadon green. (The colors change dramatically with the light, so it's rather hard to photograph.)


You might be surprised that for a "sagebrush" inspired project, I haven't picked something more intensely green. Truth is, there's rather little green in the Taos sagebrush, at least to my eye. It's often more of a soft, milky blue-gray, depending on the light and the particular plant. Put a few sprigs of sagebrush next to the true greens of cedar and yarrow, and you can really see that ...


(And admittedly, I would've picked something with a little less blue and a little more gray, but this was the best yarn color in the shop that I found at the time.)

So now I've been swatching, swatching, swatching. Crest O' The Wave, Ostrich Plumes, Fir Cone, and several variations. Trying to find something that speaks of coarse, woody shrubs that at a distance blend into a soft, rippling sea.


After two feet of swatching, I think I've finally figured it out ...