Laying Down Color

A big part of the interview with Jeannie Duncan at Fiesta Yarns was what Jeannie had to say about color.  One comment that I internalized was when she told how she would knit up a new yarn to see ‘how the color lay down together.” She was talking about “wearability” – the appearance of the yarn once it was knit up – how putting two colors next to each other changed the values of both of them.

I decided to give the “lay down” factor a try.  I bought 7 skeins of Nature Spun Sportweight, and worked out a simple pattern for a pair of fingerless gloves (mitts) I was going to knit for a swap:

8 row repeating pattern:  a 5 row ‘outline’ pattern and a 3 row ‘transition’ pattern.
Three base colors in the purple range – dark, medium, light.
Four outline colors; scarlet, pink, light green, turquoise.

Outline pattern:
Row 1- outline color
Row 2- base color
Row 3 – stranded colorwork: 2 st base, 1 st outline
Row 4 – base color
Row 5 – outline color
Transition pattern:
Row 1 – base color
Row 2 – stranded colorwork: 1 st current base color, 1 st next base color
Row 3 – base color.

Here’s how they turned out:

I kept the pattern for the base color bands:  dark, light, medium, light; but I changed the outline color when I repeated the base color bands.

It was fascinating to see how the colors affected one another.  The dark band looks more purple with the scarlet outline, while it looks browner against the light green.  And the light green isn’t as bright when it’s paired with the light band, and is much more intense on the dark band.  The same thing can be seen with the turquoise, it appears more intense against the darker base.

There’s more, but I think you get the idea.  This concept is making me examine how I use color in a whole new way.  I am also expanding my swatching to color testing.  I’ve got a few more ideas to try out, but that will have to be a follow-up post.