color

At Springwater, it is an inevitable question that comes up with each customer: what to do about color. It is an essential element to every piece of fiber design, and a beast that must be tackled by even the most beginner knitter, crocheter, weaver, felter or spinner.

At times, I dread the color question. When someone wants help with their baby blanket, I struggle to be of help, for not only am I unfamiliar with the baby situation having never had one and no friends so far who have, but I am also not a fan of blue-for-boys pink-for-girls, or pastels in general for that matter.

I have learned a great deal about color from my time working with fiber. And one thing that I have noticed, which I would like to pass on to you my dear readers, is that the best way to figure out what matches and what doesn’t is to look outside of yourself, and also outside of your craft. As a knitter, the best color lessons I have ever received were from learning to weave and spin. This is because these crafts force you to think of color differently.

In Spinning you work with pure color. Whether your initial product is an undyed fleece or a colorful piece of roving, all that you have in front of you, as Sylvia DeMar has repeated to me on several occasions, is potential. While spinning you focus on the color, and meditate on it, watching how it moves into its spun form, and how it pairs with what is around it. Spinners must understand if only intuitively how certain colors interact with each other to lighten or darken the overall affect of their yarns.

Weaving, on the other hand, moves the color to another level. Unlike knitting, shape is less of an issue on a loom, since (with some exceptions) your product is going to be a rectangle. So you think about color. You think about not only color changes, though, but how colors will mix, as you combine your warp and weft, you have to be cognizant of contrast or else your design will get lost. Plaid is an excellent way to work on this. As the various strips overlap, you see how the colors play with each other, and compliment or contrast their tones and values.

Knitters: for you color is something that more likely than not is going to be worn. Sure, you are concerned with contrast and value, but your primary interest in how it will look on you or whomever you are knitting for. I know, not all knit products are worn, but this is the primary use of the craft. You get, though, what works with your body, or on a body, walking down the street, or on your feet.

Each craft has something to learn from the others here. Knitters: pick up a spindle (you should do this anyway—every knitter should at least know how to spin!) Weavers: learn to purl, and Spinners: warp yourself a scarf. You never know what might you might learn from it!