Bring Color Into Your Knitting!
 |  | |  |  | | A montage of my dull, drab, and dreary knitted
sweaters. Thanks to my sister for modeling!
| | | | | | "You don't get WOW by doing the expected!" —Laura Bryant
The human eye can discern more than 3 million colors; isn't that amazing?
Everyone has their own color sensibilities, and judging by the photo at left, mine appear to be very earth-tone— specifically brown, black, cream, and the odd red accent.
I think I've mentioned that my sister teases me about my favorite colors being "dull, drab, and dreary," which I don't really take exception to because I honestly love those colors! I see them as rich, deep, and calming.
Back in the 80s my mom, sister, and I got our colors done and I turned out to be an "autumn." This color palette is full of earth-tones: oranges, browns, brick-reds, and beiges. I naturally gravitate towards these colors, so I wasn't that surprised at the outcome.
But I'm feeling the need to branch out. I need some color in my life, and I think I've found my personal color coach.
Laura Bryant is a color expert, yarn designer, and owner of Prism Yarns. She discovered her passion for color and knitting at an early age, learning to knit in her Brownie group at age five. (I remember learning to sew, but not knit. Alas.) Laura continued her color journey with a bachelor of fine arts from the University Michigan School of Art and never looked back. She started Prism Yarns in 1984.
Laura has a new DVD out called A Knitter's Guide to Color, and it's an amazing master class in the art of understanding and working with color.
I learned so much from my hour and a half with Laura. She starts with lessons on color value, hue, and weight—which is fascinating—and relates this color knowledge to working with yarn. It's so inspiring.
A Knitter's Guide to Color video goes far beyond color-wheel basics. Yes, orange and green are complimentary colors—but what happens when you have different color hues and weights? A pastel, minty green is complimentary to a pastel orange, but not so much to a bright, neon orange. However, a neon orange on a mint green tank top would turn heads—the colors would fight for attention. This could be a good "fight" or you might think it was too much of a mess. Laura helps you train your eye to know right away if the color combination you've chosen will workal.
One of the most exciting things for me was Laura's approach to the yarn stash. She showed me how to organize my yarn stash so I could see the color palette I have at my disposal. I can now see how the colors sit in families and I can decide on color combinations based on the yarns I already have. Laura demonstrates arranging a stash by color, and it's fascinating to watch her work.
When I took a look through my own stash, I discovered that I have sweater quantities of brown Cascade 220, gray Alpaca with a Twist Baby Twist, and cream variegated Noro Silk Garden. Clearly I need to go yarn shopping.
Here's a preview of the new DVD. It's really a special production.
 I was also really inspired by Laura's lesson on how variegated yarn reacts with solid-colored yarn and nicely adds dimension to a sweater in a striping pattern. I can see a colorful sweater in my future! I'm thinking some sort of red variegated with gray and maybe a blue solid. What do you think?
I'm excited to bring COLOR to my knitwear! Get your copy of A Knitter's Guide to Color with Laura Bryant today and get inspired with me!
Cheers,
 |  | 
Kathleen Cubley
is the editor of
Knitting Daily.
|
|
March 7, 2011
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