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Color

Back in my early crochet, pre knitting, days I was primarily inspired by filet crochet designs in your basic white. Color was very daunting to me. The first, pricey colored yarn I purchased about 12 or so years ago was Brown Sheep cotton fleece from Woolcott & Co. in Harvard Square. With it I made this floppy, but colorful granny square throw (my first CIP, courtesy of the #66 bus):


I was so in awe of this color combination, and with my coming up with it on my very own. To this day I haven't really had a color inspiration I felt was equal to it. And yeah, the combination no longer inspires, but I will never forget how it once evoked a sense of perfect warmth that made me want to bury myself in it forever.

Down through the years I have come to learn this bit of color inspiration was a fluke. I just don't have an easy rapport with color. The next best color combination I came up with just barely nips at the heel of the granny throw. It is the color array of my first knitted work ever, a hat, scarf, and fingerless glove set I knit about five years ago. Here is the hat:


I knit this with Cascade 220 wool yarn. As you would expect, the color combination no longer pops out at me as it once did, and within a few years I may find the color selection abhorrent, but for the first few years I wore this set with immeasurable pride.

Unfortunately, my color sense has been in the descendent while the fashion of color multiplicity has been in the ascendent. I am so overwhelmed. And when overwhelmed I tend to retreat to the safety of using one color, of which all of my current WIPS exemplify with the exception of the variegated yarn of my Sweet Tart socks. And this, itself, is telling.

This following yarn choice underscores my inability to choose color properly. I loved the way this Cherry Hill Tree yarn looked like this:


but am less impressed with how it looks like knit up:


The wine hue in the colorway, which seemed so benign in it's skein state, has overwhelmed the preferred russet, granny apple green, and yellow hues. I am so frustrated by my natural inability to foresee color transmutations. Therefore, I am sooooooooooooooo envious, and prone to drool I must add, when I look at the color choices I see out in the blogosphere.

When I first started prowling the knitblog scene I came across a most perfect specimen of color integration at the blog Bag 'n' Trash.

When I first set eyes on this chevron scarf* I returned to the state I experienced when I first crocheted my granny square throw. I have no facility to express how fantabulous I think this color combination is, nor how color effects my sense of being. It almost feels as if as long as I look at this beautiful object, all is right in the world. Weird, but true.



As I've continued to read Maryse's blog, I continue to be in awe of her color sense, as well as her amazing photography skills.

What inspired this blog entry, this self-reflection on color, however, was the following WIP* found at the Chevron Scarf Knitalog blog, as well as at the knitter's personal blog, Minverva Turkey.


I would never ever dream of putting these two colors together. I look at the two cakes sitting next to each other and quite honestly think, uh, yuck. But when I see them knitted up in this beautiful scarf, I'm bowled over by how beautifully the colors compliment each other and once again I'm feeling all is right in the world.

I can only dream of having the color sense of these two bloggers. I have resigned myself to being a color vampire, to finding inspiration in my fellow bloggers rather than being a wellspring of color coordination myself. But at the risk of waxing melodramatic, I do think there are far worse fates in life than being a color dummy. Wouldn't you agree?

*I would like to take this opportunity to thank Maryse over at Bag 'n' Trash and Shannon at Minverva Turkey and the Chevron Scarf Knitalog for allowing me to reprint their work here. Thank you ladies for your consent, and for the inspiration!

Comments

Minerva Turkey said…
I love the colors you have chosen in your projects. A friend of mine uses a spectrum wheel to help her with choices. She carries it in her knitting bag. :)
Morticcia said…
You are too kind! I think your friend is right on with the color wheel!