Monday, April 23, 2012

3KCBWDAY1 - Colour Lovers


Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

There was a time when I purchased yarn based on color alone.  Fiber, texture, ease of care, weight even... the importance of all of these paled in comparison to the vibrancy of the rainbow wall standing before me at the craft store.  My early acquisitions (purchased and used one at a time, thereby predating "the stash") tended toward the colors I usually wear: dark purples, deep blues, ruby reds... zero pastels and a surprising amount of variegation.

My first purchase: I bought a single skein of Lion Brand Homespun in Corinthian to make myself a wide garter-stitch scarf to use as a hood...
image from Lion Brand
aaaand now I can't find it.  It's here somewhere.  Anyway, this was before I knew that yarn comes in different weights, and that sometimes it takes more than one skein of something to get a finished object, and that yarn weights had corresponding needle sizes that had an effect on the resulting fabric, and that maybe I'd find it useful to have more than one pair of needles... you know, the things I think about now.  (:))  All I knew was that the colors were gorgeous.  I totally lucked into a washable, soft scarf of just the right length and width, knit on the correct needles.

Then I made myself five or six more garter-stitch scarves in Homespun BUT with alternating wide stripes (oooh.  aaah.).  After these first projects were off the needles, since I didn't yet feel up to the herculean task of accomplishing the purl stitch, I decided to stick with what I knew and so immediately dove into twenty-five garter-stitch scarves in Homespun: gift knitting! which is where I've lived ever since.

Now.  Here's the thing about gift knitting.  The whole point is: it's for not-me, soooo my preferences for colors are out the window.  The focus is instead jewel tones for my mom (I know, mom, but you love jewel tones, too, I know, but just go with it), pastels for my friend's new baby, etc.  That also means, of course, that you can't judge me positively or negatively when I show you
THIS

and THIS

and THIS
because they weren't bought for me!

...I lied, that last one is totally for me.  That sweater's going to look awesome.  If I ever finish it.

You know what, no, I will not be ashamed!  Color has no moral value and, therefore, cannot be wrong!
image via What Not to Crochet

Yeah, sorry, that's pretty wrong.  My bad.


To read all about other peoples' love of color from those taking part in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, simply perform a Google search for the tag 3KCBWDAY1, or click here.

3 comments:

Jillian said...

Ooooh I just bought some paper in jewel stones to make more cards! Holler.

Jillian said...

*tones, not stones

Stefanie said...

That Josephine cardi will be great in that green.