Those yarns: special thanks to the wonferful people at Texere Yarns for those pinks at the bottom, and without whom my creative life would be the less. Check their site - link is on the left of this...

Here's my final swatch. Made up of four yarns (1+1+2 held together) including a silk, a slub and two mohairs. Some man made fibres in there, and one of the mohairs has two metallics plied in (by me on the spinning wheel). Lots if visual interest, a good tweedy look, and informed by my colour design work. Now onto the pattern calculations...

Using the flecked tweed pattern from Alison Ellen's book New Directions in Hand Knitting, I dived into the yarn stash for colourways that came out of my corals picture.

Texture of yarn was important as well as colour. I wanted a reasonably firm handle but with softness and textural interest. I sampled with combinations of regular yarns, fuzzies, metallics, variegated. Some worked better than others.

Why am I here? Oh yes, knitting... Swatching for the jacket I sampled a number of different slip stitches. The aim was to try and find a stitch that best gave a feeling of tweed fabric.