Fiber Fool

Okay, since I’ve asked you to answer a little color meme it is only fair if I share my answers with you too, I suppose! So, here i is…

1. What is your current favorite color?

I have quite a few - dark brown, orange, olive, sage, deep purple/plum, turquoise/teal. In reality, there are few colors I dislike, just colors that are inappropriate for certain applications.

2. Has your favorite color changed over the years?

Yes and no. I go through phases where I’m more drawn to the earthy versions - muted, toned down and more in the blue/black/brown/green spectrum with little warm colors, but it always seems to swing back to liking at least a few warm colors as well. It has been interesting to watch my closet evolve over the years. Makes me think I should take annual pics of it and watch how it changes for real rather than just as I imagine in changes :-)

What I do find interesting is that I had an early birthday (I think 3, mom thinks 1, but I don’t think I was communicative enough at 1 to pull it off) where *everything* had to be orange - right down to the “leaves” on the otherwise peachy-colors cake! Oranges and rusts have been becoming more and more attractive to me in the last 5 years or so again.

3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? (Do you see it in the fashion rags or on the clothes rack or in the linen aisle right now? How about 5 years ago?)

Orange has been trendy. I suspect it is kind of fading its way back out. I mean Apple dropped the orange Shuffles with their latest rev, so it must be on the way out, right? Thank goodness I already have a nice orange sleeve for my Nano ;-) The other colors I like most tend to hang on throughout the years, sometimes a variant in saturation or tone is more popular than another, but they tend to be found here or there.

I wouldn’t call myself a trendsetter by any means, but I due tend to be a bit ahead of the curve on my color preferences. Case in point? My Not-So-Squatty which I knit two years ago, from yarn that was bought a year or maybe even two before that. Then, last year SmartWool put out some knee highs in a similar color combo. See, a bit ahead of the curve…

4. What is your favorite color combination?

I love a rich brown (cool or warm) with nearly any pastel. In fact, that is about the only way I like my pastels - in deep contrast with brown or sometimes black.

One of my fav color combos for the last several years has been orange/rust/violet/plum/turquoise like I used in my Not-So-Squatty. I then have taken clues from that colorway for the roving I spun and knit into the Queen of Diamonds and into the secret spiral project. I even dyed some more roving in a similar colorway this spring/summer.

I love to play with color and color combos so I think I would be pretty hard pressed to find a color combo I didn’t like. Though not all color combos are suitable for wear or home decor etc. I usually appreciate most color combos I come across in daily living.

5. Is that combination a popular one? (Is it use in prints you see in the stores and catalogs and magazines now? How about 5 years ago?)

The dark brown with pink or teal/turquoise/aqua are very popular right now and I’m loving it. The orange and teal/turquoise is starting to pop up more and more now too, but not along with the violet and plum, though I have seen a bit of the orange with violet and plum as well.

6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? (Are you a stranded knitter? Do you prefer simple stripes? Do you prefer just accents at the hems/collars?)

I have shied away from colorwork for the most part. Partially because I tend to knit socks most of the time. So, up to this point I’ve left the color in my knitting up to the fabulous dyers out there and occasionally have pulled out my own dye pot. I have, however, lusted after many a Scandinavian sweater (sometime I will have one complete with the pewter toggles - I swear) and I am very excited to have this opportunity to get my hand held via the Ethnic Knitting worksheets while designing one that is all “KRISTI!”

I love color so much and it has always played a pretty important role in my life so I appreciate color in knitting in stripes, colorwork, and as accents. Though I have stayed away from striping due to the lack of flattery of horizontal stripes. I should put a side-to-side knit sweater in my queue one of these days so I can have fun stripes, but not have to worry about the horizontal issue!

7. What colors look good on you?

Earthy tones tend to go quite well with my skin tone, which tends to have a nice golden tint when I’m tanned (like from all the gardening I’ve done this summer). At the same time, I get lots of compliments when I wear certain magenta/cranberry colors. Oddly those are all cool forms of red, yet the earthy tones look good. It confuses me a bit. I have no idea what season I am. I know at make-up counters I think I often get made-up with spring colors, but again the autumnal colors look good on me too. I shoudl go dust off that flea market copy of Color Me Beautiful!

8. What colors look bad on you?

I don’t care to wear true reds near my face. Amanda and Ashley say I’m over thinking, but I feel when I wear red near my face that it brings out the terrible adult acne I have. Very yellow-based greens that are at the lighter end of the spectrum tend to make me look gravely ill. I love lime green, but it can’t be near my face! I am also starting to question how well the bright peachy/coral colors I’ve been picking up lately look on me. It’s hard to tell as our main larger mirror is in a room that is painted yellow-y toned and has bad lighting, but I tend to cringe a bit when I see myself wearing those.

9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them?

In general I’d say no, but see above about the peachy/coral colors :-) Amanda, Ashley, should I pass those tees and tanks onto someone else next year?

10. What is your favorite neutral color? black/white/ivory/tan/brown/gray – if brown or gray do you prefer cool or warm versions of those or does it matter? And, how dark?

I love them all! In most cases I don’t care about the darkness. I do tend towards cool gray and warm browns/tans, but I’m not exclusive in that. In fact, a lot of my browns are cool because that is what has been available at the time I purchased them.

11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published? If yes, which one? What do you not like about the published colors?

There isn’t a pattern this is popping to mind right now. The ones popping into mind are ones where I’ve found the chosen colorway to be striking.

Additional Posts in the Color Series

• Intro Stuff - Colors and Design
• Part I: Hue and the Color Wheel
• Part II: Color Descriptors I

Yikes! I’ve been using a spreadsheet to help me chart my boatneck sweater. The scientific/geek side of me said, “Kristi, you have the whole sweater charted in the spreadsheet, why not use that to help you estimate the yardage you’ll need of each of the four colors?”

The easily overwhelmed side of me replied with, “OMG, in the process of doing so I have estimated there to be a total of 52,328 stitches in the sweater, excluding facings and steeking stitches! FIFTY TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT STITCHES!”

Oy! & Vey! (as DH would say)

The proud side of me said, “Wow, your guesses of the color percentages were not too far off!”

If you need me, I’ll be swatching to see how much that outrageous number will be changing when I stop estimating my expected gauge and adjust for the actual gauge…

ETA: Don’t forget I’m a plus-sized gal so I have more stitches than the average person! :-)

I am currently working on designing a sweater using the techniques from the soon to be released Ethnic Knitting Discovery by Donna Druchunas. The finished sweater is to be a part of an online gallery to complement the book at ethnicknitting.com. This book starts with the simplest of ethnic sweaters in terms of techniques and design and walks you through a small sample/useful swatch project and a couple of sweaters from four different regions – Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, and the Andes. It is the first in a series that I understand will address increasingly complex ethnic knitting.

The patterns in the book are really non-patterns. But, don’t freak out about that! Even if you are patently not a designer or even if you are a bit afraid of the math involved you can knit a sweater from this book. There are three different worksheets for every project so you can choose the one that works for you. The first is just a schematic on which you note your dimensions and gauge and you just fly by wire, working off of the graphic. The second provides some more hand holding by giving you a chart to fill in with all the important numbers and the notes you need to do the math ahead of time. The third worksheet will hold your hand through every single step, helping you to fill in the numbers but still providing you with step-by-step direction on how to knit and assemble the sweater. For me, because I’m an experienced knitter who has stayed away from garments for myself for a variety of reasons through the years I’ll probably end up using a conglomeration of all three.

I am working on the Norwegian Boatneck sweater (those of you who have been around for a while, or were at least here for last winter’s baking activities are probably wondering what took me so long to start a project like this). There are some traditional stitch patterns and guidance on making one as shown in the book illustration with the yarn gauge of your choice and sized to fit you. I am mixing up the stitch patterns to make it a unique sweater, just for me. I’m also borrowing a few things from the following chapter such as a modified drop shoulder rather than the standard drop shoulder because I’m not a traditionalist. Ha, ha, I know some of you are laughing at that. Okay, let me put it another way – just because a given construction is the traditional way does not mean I won’t make modifications so that the finished garment will be more flattering on my plus-sized frame.

Even before I started choosing my stitch motifs and the final dimensions (still not 100% decided on that since I own nothing with this type of construction from which to take measurements) the first step was choosing the colors of the sweater. I could have stuck with the traditional black/ivory/red color combo, but I already have a sweater in that color combination in my closet. Oh what a game choosing colors can be! Especially when you don’t have a photo of an already completed version of the sweater to analyze.

My poor, poor friends and family have been inundated with schematics approximating the color combo choices of the yarn I will be using for this sweater (Suri Merino from Plymouth if you were wondering) all week long. Amanda in particular has been scrutinizing nearly every single option I have pulled from my hat. Others have felt utterly overwhelmed at the variety I came up with (and if you are reading this and thinking I’m talking about you – you were not alone).

It is in this process of choosing my colors that I realized you all may enjoy following along in my design process and decision making on this. It should give you a good sense of Ethnic Knitting Discovery and the infinite sweater possibilities it and the rest of the series can provide you. I hope it also reminds me of the decisions I made along the way so I can write a helpful abbreviated diary to go along with the sweater photo at ethnicknitting.com.

Going through the color choices also reminded me of the struggle and uncertainty many feel in choosing colors for their projects. I often feel I have a good inner color sense and I also have the training and experience from my pre-knitting life to back me up, yet I was waffling on my color choices - BIG TIME. So, I think I will also be addressing some color theory as applied to knitting (though really what I talk about will be applicable to most any craft) in the coming weeks.

At this point I am thinking of touching on these topics:

• Ways in which yarns and color can contrast
• Common color harmonies and how to use them to aid you in color selection
• Analyzing the contrast and harmony used in a published pattern
• Safe ways to swap out colors in a published pattern
• More daring ways to successfully swap out colors in a published pattern
• How to use a spreadsheet and photo editing software to aid you in color selection

I’m only starting to formulate the posts for these so if you have some specific questions about color or color and knitting, leave a comment! In the meantime, perhaps you would like to fill out a meme on color – either at your own blog and link back to this post or in the comments… Just cut and paste and answer and spread the word!

1. What is your current favorite color?
2. Had your favorite color changed over the years?
3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? (Do you see it in the fashion rags or on the clothes rack or in the linen aisle right now? How about 5 years ago?)
4. What is your favorite color combination?
5. Is that combination a popular one? (Is it use in prints you see in the stores and catalogs and magazines now? How about 5 years ago?)
6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? (Are you a stranded knitter? Do you prefer simple stripes? Do you prefer just accents at the hems/collars?)
7. What colors look good on you?
8. What colors look bad on you?
9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them?
10. What is your favorite neutral color? black/white/ivory/tan/brown/gray – if brown or gray do you prefer cool or warm versions of those or does it matter? And, how dark?
11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published? If yes, which one? What do you not like about the published colors?

The answers to these questions should prove useful to you as I work my way through this color series.

Those who are perfectly happy choosing patterns based upon the colors published, don’t worry. These posts will take a lot more work behind the scenes than I usually take for my blog posts (and I have a lot more work to do these days as well) so there are certain to be non-color and even non-design posts too! Quite likely cooking, gardening, and reading posts will still pop up now again too.

Additional Posts in the Color Series

• Intro Stuff - My Color Meme Answers
• Part I: Hue and the Color Wheel
• Part II: Color Descriptors I