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.

New book?

I promised to tell you more about my colour experiment plans.
As you may have already realised I am doing lots of work with a triangle motif.
All of my recent designs use the same motif, sometimes I use 4 rounds, sometimes 6.
But its still the same basic motif however many I use.

The difference between each design is colour, shape and pattern.
I am so obsessed with the motif and what I can do with it.

This is the starting point for all my designs

So far I have made 2 lap blankets and am working on a lace scarf.
But I have layouts for another 3 blankets, 2 shawls and 2 scarves and I think if I play with photoshop for too long there are more designs lurking.

I'd like to do a book of some of my triangle designs, but am not sure if people want books on colour, shape and patterns. I haven't seen any, but that doesn't mean to say there aren't any.
I've always been a huge fan of Kaffe Fassett, his thing is colour and pattern, I could spend hours looking at his books, not for his knitting patterns, but for the colours and shapes.
I'm not saying I'm want to be Kaffe, but I would love to be as talented and as inspirational.
People love Kaffe, so maybe my book would be ok.

I am worried that you might be disappointed with a crochet book with only one motif in it and that pretty diagrams and photo's might not be enough.
What do you think? I'd love to know.

Although I would say I am going to be guided by your opinion's before I make a decision as to whether I should do a book or not.
But I think I'm far too obsessional to listen.
But I am really interested to know what you think........

More time....

I follow some knitwear/crochet designers on Twitter, they talk about their new designs and pattern writing exploits.
A lot of them seem to publish new patterns every few weeks
I want to do that too, I wish I had the time, but I don't

I can't publish patterns every couple of weeks for two reasons.
The first is because most of my designs are blankets which take weeks and weeks to make.
I could get them made for me so I could design more, but to me they are like pieces of art and I don't know what they are going to be until I have finished them.
I change my mind about colours and stitches and shapes designing and refining as I go along.
So blankets are my first stumbling block.

The second is I'm too busy.
My mornings are spent running NDS and dyeing, in theory my afternoons should be spent designing.
But most day's my mornings finish at 5 pm and thats only beacuse we have to go back down the hill to the post office to catch the last post.
If it wasn't for the last post they would probably finish about midnight.
Occasionally I manage a whole afternoon and very very occasionally I manage a whole day.
So all my designing and crocheting is done in the evenings, we tend to stay up late, Phil knitting and me crocheting.
Not because we want to stay up late, but because we want to cram as many hours of playing with wool in as we possibly can.

I love my life and wouldn't want to do anything else.
I live the dream even though its hard work, every second is worth the fight.

But even still I get slightly jealous, every time someone talks about their latest pattern and shares photo's.
Wish I had more time.......

Spare a thought for Verity

I'm sitting here on my nice snuggly sofa crocheting in front of the fire.
From where I sit I can see the top of Summer House Hill, its not very summery today, its cold and bleak with horizontal rain, we have snow forecast so its going to be even bleaker soon.

The bleak coldness reminds me of the day we went to see Verity a couple of weeks ago, I meant to blog some photo's at the time, but then Ted got ill and died and I forgot.
But I've remembered now so here is the blog post.......

Verity is a 65 foot bronze Damien Hirst sculpture, she was stands at the entrance of Illfracombe harbour.
She was erected last October and we have been meaning to go and see her ever since.
We finally found the time just after Christmas when all our babies were here.
It was a bitterly cold bleak day, the sea was boiling, Verity must of been freezing, but I'm sure she's a lot colder today.