Don't be scared of colour

I often have e-mails from customers worrying about whether the have the right colour for a project.
And also worried about whether one colour will go with another.
So I thought I'd write a blog post about it.

Firstly DON'T be scared of colour.
I bet you are not really scared of colour, even though you think you are.

Have you ever bought a dress and then needed to find a pair of shoes to match?
The dress and shoes probably aren't the same shade, its difficult to find leather and cloth in the exact same shade as both materials are dyed in a different way, so different dyes will be used.
Have you ever planned flower beds? You may know you wanted a pink here and a yellow there, but  nature decides for its self and even if you think you know the colour, you will end up with a different shade.
Or have you planned a wedding with a colour theme?
Buying bridesmaid dresses, napkins, flowers etc to match will end up a series of similar shades, but not the exact colour.

The wool photo below shows you an example of several different shades that go together and would be interchangeable.

See its not so difficult afterall, you do it all the time without even realising it.

For some reason knitters and crocheters can get incredibly stressed about using the right colour for a project. Personally I don't think there is right colour, as colours look different in different light.
If you are trying to use a similar colour, compare the new one to the old by squinting at them, its easy to tell which are the wrong colours as they will stand out from the right ones.

This bit is the advice to my customers who worry about getting the right colours for my designs.

I am lucky because I have a huge stash that is also known as shop stock, so I have a massive amount of colours to choose from. But I quite often find I have run out of colour and have to replace it with a different shade,.
If you look at my designs carefully you will find that I use lots of different dyelots in the same project.
Its easier to blend colours with crochet motifs, especially multi coloured ones.
For example the photo below, I have raised the contast so it's more obvious. The 2 motifs marked with crosses have backgrounds that are slightly different shades, it more obvious if you see the blanket in the flesh.
But its not too obvious for the motifs to stand out as being wrong.

You might be making a 3 round motif, the 1st round is pink, the second is purple and the third orange, maybe you run out of pink, you can add a different shade of pink, the motif will still look right with the others, there will just be a subtle difference.
I like the subtle differences I think they give a project more depth and detail, without much effort.
Another good thing about motif's is that you are only making a small piece 1 at a time, rather like jigsaw pieces. If you find a oolour that is wrong you can easily start again with a new colour.

I hope this post makes sense, I have a lot to say about colour, but its very jumbled in my head.
I really need to write it all down and do some proper blog posts about it.