Color workshop - Swatches!
Today I did a fantastic colorwork workshop with Brandon Mably (who designs with Kaffe Fassett) at Hill Country Weavers in Austin, TX (he's on tour). It was great! While I don't tend to shy away from patterns with complex stitches, I've always been a bit intimidated by knitting with tons of different colors. No longer! Anyway, I had a blast and I learned a fair share too. Not too much about the actual mechanics of knitting, since it was just stockinette. But... some tips and tidbits on working with color and how different colors play off each other. Also, some tips on weaving in ends as you go. I have taken some more formal color theory classes, but I liked this approach much better. Basically... just do it and see if you like it. If you don't like it and you've already knit it... leave it there and keep going anyway because it's a swatch and you may be able to work it in later and look good. If you see colors coming up that don't match, break one out and stick in something else! I think I learned more about working with color by working with yarn in this class than in the myriad of color theory classes I'd done previously.
Anyway... here are some pictures of some swatches:
We were all given the same basic colorwork pattern to knit. We all had a mound of little balls of yarn we'd brought in front of us... and then we all walked around and took everyone else's yarn too. It was great fun.
My swatch going into lunch:
I thought this was kind of dull, but I liked the little hints of bright blue at the top and bottom of the 'poppies'. To start the class we made balls of yarn by taking all of our light colors and winding off a few feet each and knotting them together, then the same with the dark colors. It was to make us turn off the brain and just knit with colors. The light tweedy green and the bright blue looked surprisingly pleasing together... don't think I would have picked that. Still don't know if I'd want them together on clothes, but it's a swatch and it looks kinda neat.
My finished swatch:
The bit I like best is at the very end where I'm starting in with some vibrant greens in the background and browns in the foreground. I also like the one above it, but I wish the colors in the poppy weren't quite as contrasty between each other... a bit too much striping. But we'd been forbidden to frog. It's still pleasant though, so I'm glad I couldn't.
Everyone's finished swatches:
Mine's in the upper left hand corner. They're all so different! Seeing everyone's swatches at the end and talking about them was really cool. Especially since we'd done it before going to lunch and it was neat to see what we did before vs. after lunch. I'm considering continuing mine on and making a scarf. I might. It's a good way to use up scraps and practice color combinations. This is probably the first time I really relished making a swatch. I also took his point to heart: with colorwork you REALLY have to swatch because no color exists in isolation. The colors really change depending on what they are put next to.
Anyway... thought you'd enjoy.
We were all given the same basic colorwork pattern to knit. We all had a mound of little balls of yarn we'd brought in front of us... and then we all walked around and took everyone else's yarn too. It was great fun.
My swatch going into lunch:
I thought this was kind of dull, but I liked the little hints of bright blue at the top and bottom of the 'poppies'. To start the class we made balls of yarn by taking all of our light colors and winding off a few feet each and knotting them together, then the same with the dark colors. It was to make us turn off the brain and just knit with colors. The light tweedy green and the bright blue looked surprisingly pleasing together... don't think I would have picked that. Still don't know if I'd want them together on clothes, but it's a swatch and it looks kinda neat.
My finished swatch:
The bit I like best is at the very end where I'm starting in with some vibrant greens in the background and browns in the foreground. I also like the one above it, but I wish the colors in the poppy weren't quite as contrasty between each other... a bit too much striping. But we'd been forbidden to frog. It's still pleasant though, so I'm glad I couldn't.
Everyone's finished swatches:
Mine's in the upper left hand corner. They're all so different! Seeing everyone's swatches at the end and talking about them was really cool. Especially since we'd done it before going to lunch and it was neat to see what we did before vs. after lunch. I'm considering continuing mine on and making a scarf. I might. It's a good way to use up scraps and practice color combinations. This is probably the first time I really relished making a swatch. I also took his point to heart: with colorwork you REALLY have to swatch because no color exists in isolation. The colors really change depending on what they are put next to.
Anyway... thought you'd enjoy.