Journal

 

 

There are so many places to source inspiration for colour combinations, whether it be online, in print or from the surrounding environment. You'll be surprised to find that if you start consciously looking, you'll begin to see colour palettes everywhere.  In today's post, we'll be exploring some of the places you can go to find colour inspiration.

 

Online

The World Wide Web - what a fantastic source of information and inspiration!  There are so many websites dedicated to colour; it's hard to narrow them down to a few. But here are some of my favorites.

Design Seeds

A fantastic resource for colour combinations, Design Seeds uses photos to create colour palettes.

 

COLOURlovers

Browse thousands of colour palettes or create your own!  COLOURlovers also helps you keep up with colour trends, plus they have a great blog.

 

Adobe Colour Wheel

Adobe Colour Wheel is a fantastic online tool for creating colour palettes.

 

Pinterest

Create a colour mood board and pin pictures that you love onto it. You can then refer to it later when looking for colour inspiration.

 

Print Media

Magazines are a fantastic source of colour inspiration: I find fashion, lifestyle and design magazines are particularly good for finding colour inspiration. Here are a few of my favourites.

       

 

Surrounding Environment

Whether you live in the country, by the sea or in the middle of a bustling city, the environment that surrounds you is packed full of colour inspiration. From nature to man-made structures, photograph whatever catches your eye and use the resulting images for colour palette inspiration. There are online colour palette generators that can help you to create colour swatches from your images (like Pictaculous), or use imaging editing software like Photoshop to make your own.

And don't forget to share them with others through social sites like Pinterest, Instagram or Tumblr.

 

To Sum it all up

• Search for colour inspiration online via websites and social sites.
• Find loads of inspiring colour ideas through magazines and other print media.
• Look around where you live for colour swatch ideas; keep a record of them by taking pictures and creating swatches.

And that is the end of our series!  As always, if you've found this post or the series useful, please be sure to let me know in the comments below, and feel free to share it with your fibre-loving friends.

 

 

 

Planning your colour scheme for colourwork projects can be difficult.  Knowing exactly which colours to put together to form a pleasing colour arrangement can be a very daunting task.  Not any more!  This week we'll be exploring the colour wheel and explaining why this simple little colour map should become your 'go-to guide' for selecting amazing colour combinations.

So, how can a colour wheel help when choosing colours for colourwork?  According to colour theory, harmonious colour combinations (or colour schemes) can be found on a colour wheel by simply using a number of formulas. Knowledge of these formulas will give you immeasurable help when selecting colours for colourwork, or any project that uses more than one colour. Once you get the gist of it, you'll find yourself using these formulas without even thinking about it. There are many formulas, but we will be concentrating on monochromatic, analogous, diad, triad, complementary, split complementary and tetradic. We'll look at the pros and cons of each formula, as well as suggesting some tips that you might find helpful when knitting with each of these colour schemes. 

 

The colour wheel is often left out of a knitter's tool kit. Why not get one to put in your notions case or, even better, get an app for your phone or tablet?  That way you'll always have one on hand.

 

Monochromatic Colour Combinations

Monochromatic colour combinations consist of colours ranging from light to dark within a single hue (for example, blue).

Pros

• Selecting colours for this type of colour scheme is easy and the results are subtle, yet very pleasing.
• Allows you to choose a number of different colours: i.e. you're not restricted to just two or three.
• Produces a balanced, calming effect.

Cons

• Very low in contrast - you need to make sure that the colours you chose differ significantly in tone (see part 1.)
  
  

Tip! To test for contrast, twist all colour strands together. If the colours merge together, you'll know there is not enough contrast.

 

Analogous Colour Combinations

 

Colours placed next to each other on the colour wheel make up an analogous colour combination. These type of colour combinations are often found in nature and are very pleasing to the eye.

Pros

• Just like monochromatic colour combinations, they are easy to select.
• This color scheme looks a lot more vibrant than monochromatic colour combinations.
• You can choose as many colours as you like.

Cons

• These colour schemes can lack contrast, so it's vital that you make sure that there is enough variation in tone for your colourwork project to pop!
  
  

Tip!  Avoid using warm and cool tones together in analogous colour combinations.

 

Diad Colour Combinations

 

Diad colour combinations are made up of two colours, found two steps apart from each other on the colour wheel.

Pros

• These look great in colourwork and are perfect for those who are wanting a colour scheme that is less vibrant than complementary colours.
• A simple colour scheme that is easy to put together.

Cons

• The contrast between colours is not as strong as complementary.
• Limited to two colours.

 

Triadic Colour Combinations

 

Triadic colour combinations are made up of three colours that are spaced evenly around the colour wheel.

Pros

• Gives you a nice balance of colour that is high in contrast.
• These colour combinations tend to be quite vibrant, even if you use pale or unsaturated hues.

Cons

• Not as vibrant as split complementary colour schemes.
• Limited to three colours.

Tip!  To use this colour combination successfully, let one colour dominate and use the other two as accents.

 

 Complementary Colour Combinations

 

Complementary colours are found on opposite sides of the colour wheel. 

Pros

• When used together, these colours create vivid and bright colour combinations, more so than any of the other combinations we have looked at. 
• Fabulous for stripes.

Cons

• Can be jarring and hard on the eyes. To help ease this, make sure you use different tones (e.g. a light colour paired with a dark).
• Limited to two colours.

Tip!  When using complementary colours, try placing warm tones next to cool. 

 

Split Complementary Colour Combinations

Split complementary colours are a variation of the complementary colour scheme: one colour is paired with two colours that are on either side of the complementary colour. 

Pros

• Perfect for three-colour knitting.
• Provides a high contrast between colours.
• This type of colour combination is hard to mess up and almost always results in a pleasing colour scheme.

Cons

• May be harder to create a balance between colours. If so, you may be better off trying the monochromatic or analogous colour combinations.
• Limited to three colours.

Tip!  To highlight warm tones in your project, use a single, warm colour against two cool, OR if you want the cool colour to take center stage, place it next to two warm colours.

 

Tetradic Colour Combinations

Tetradic colour combinations are also known as double complementary because you are using two pairs of complementary colours.  The first picture shows a rectangular colour scheme, the second is a square. 

Pros

• Creates a rich and vibrant colour scheme.
• Lots of contrast.

Cons

• This is the hardest of all colour schemes to balance.
• Limited to four colours

Tip!  To help balance this colour combination, make sure you have an equal amount of warm and cool colours.

 

Cool and Warm Colours

 

Colour wheels are split into two sections: cool colours on one side, warm colours on the other. Selecting a balance of these colours means making sure that you have the same number of colours on either side of the colour wheel. Mixing warm and cool tones works especially well with triadic, complementary, split complementary and tetradic colour combinations but should be avoided in analogous colour combination.

 

Tone

I know I spoke about tone last week, but I again wanted to emphasise its importance within a colour scheme. The colour wheel pictures that I have used do not show tone; there are colour wheels out there that do, like this one.  If you're looking to get one, try and find one that illustrates tone.  Using the above colour formulas and combining those with your knowledge of tone will, without a doubt, produce eye-catching colour combination.

 

Using Neutrals

Neutrals don't appear on the colour wheel but they make wonderful additions to any colour combination. Neutral colours are shades of grey, black, white and sometimes brown and beige. Try adding one or more neutral colours to any of the above combinations to liven them up and expand you colour palette. The example above shows a split complementary colour combination with grey.

 

To Sum it all up

• The colour wheel is an important tool that will help you choose harmonious colour combinations.
• Keep in mind the pros and cons of each colour formula when selecting colours for colourwork.
• Never forget to vary tone within a colour combination; this is really important for the overall success of your colour scheme.
• Try adding neutral colours to your colour scheme; they help to liven up your colours and expand your color palette.

I hope you have found this post helpful!  Next week we'll be looking at where to find inspiration for colour combinations and how to use this inspiration when selecting colours for eye-catching combinations. If you've found this post useful, please let me know in the comments below and be sure to share it with your fibre-loving friends.

 

 

Selecting multiple colours for colourwork projects can be a daunting task. There are just SO many colours and SO many choices that it can become really overwhelming.  Fear no more!  Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some tips about how to put together eye-catching colour combinations.  This week we'll be looking at tone.

Tone is defined as the lightness or darkness of a colour.

 

It's a well-known fact that tone plays a huge role in making or breaking a colourwork project. Tone, quite simply, is the lightness or darkness of a colour.  When it comes to colourwork, you want your colours to vary in tone as much as possible.  If there is not enough variation in tone, colours will simply fade into one another and the colourwork pattern will be lost.  There is, however, a simple 'light, dark and bright' method that I use when selecting colours, that will help you focus on tone when you're selecting yarn for your next colourwork project.

 

Light, dark and bright

 

To explain the light, dark and bright method, let's pretend that you're wanting to knit the very popular Colour Affection shawl by Veera Välimäki (pictured above).  Say you're shopping online or browsing through your LYS, looking to buy three skeins of sock yarn in different colours to make this shawl.  Start off by selecting one colour, something that really draws your attention; this will be the colour that you will use to base your other choices on. 

Tip!  If you're shopping online, use the cart to help visualise your colour combinations.  Most carts will display your yarns in a list formation, which makes it easy to see what they will look like together.

Step 1. Decide if the colour that you've just chosen will be the light, dark or bright tone in the trio. For example, I chose Citrine, a greenish yellow and I've decided I want this to be the light colour in my project.

Step 2.  Now that I have my light colour, I need to select two more colours that are darker and brighter.  These colours don't have to come from the same colour group, they just needs to be darker and brighter in tone. So, after looking around I've chosen a navy blue that will act as the dark tone in the trio.

Step 3.  I have my light and dark colours, all I need now is a bright. Again it doesn't have to belong in the same colour group, it just needs to be brighter than the other two skeins. You want this colour to really pop!  I've chosen a bright fuchsia.

And here is my colour combination:

 

When knitted up, this trio of colours will contrast really nicely together because they all differ significantly in tone: one is light, one is dark, and one is bright. 

 

Tip!  For a never-fail colour trio, select a light and dark neutral of the same hue (for example, grey) then add a bright pop of colour like fuchsia, lime or yellow.

 

What happens if you're wanting to select only two colours?

For projects that only require two colours, like the Daybreak shawl by Stephen West, you can still use the light, dark and bright rule, but this time you only need to select two tones - a light and dark, a light and bright, or a dark and bright. In the picture below we can see that Stephen West chose a dark brown with a bright rusty orange. Both colours contrast really nicely against each other; as you can see, the orange really pops against the dark brown.

 

 

What about projects that require four or more colours?

For projects that require more than three colours, like Kate Davies' beautiful Fair Isle cardigan Cockatoo Brae which is worked with six contrast colours, you will need a selection of light, dark and bright colours. It's really important when selecting colours for fair isle designs that you use the light, dark and bright rule - otherwise if you use colours that have a similar tone the colours will merge together and the design will be obscured due to lack of contrast. Don't be afraid, just use the three steps mentioned above. First, select a background colour. If it's a light background (like Cockatoo Brae), make sure the rest of the colours are darker and brighter or, if the background is dark, choose light and bright colours. In Kate's design, she chose a light, white background with contrasting bright pops of red, yellow and blue, and dark green and purple.

 

 

 Tip! Use an image editing app on your phone or tablet to test tonal differences between colours.

 

Photographic Evidence!

You've gathered your yarns, but you're still not sure if there is enough difference in tone between each colour. Don't panic, this is where technology comes to the rescue! Grab your mobile phone or tablet and take a picture of all your skeins side by side.  If you're shopping online you can still use this method: all you need to do is take a screen shot of your cart, or simply use your phone or tablet to take a picture from your computer or laptop. Now, upload the picture to Instagram, VSCOcam or any other photo editing app that enables you to add a black-and-white filter. After you have turned your picture to black and white, you will easily be able to see if there is any difference in tone between your colours. For example, let's look at the colours that I chose above for the Stripe Study shawl. Here they are again in colour, and below in black and white:

As you can see, there is a huge difference in tone between these three colours. The first colour is a light grey, the second is a dark grey/almost black and the third is a medium shade of grey. We can now be confident that these colours will contrast nicely, and thus make an eye-catching colour combination. Now let's look at another example, one which shows a colour combination that has little or no difference in tone:

See how, in the black-and-white picture, there is little-to-no difference in tone between these three colours. They all appear to be a similar shade of grey. This particular colour combination would not contrast well together and should be avoided.
 

To Sum It All Up

• Tone is the most important factor that can make or break a colourwork project.
• For a colourwork project to pop vibrantly, each of your colours must differ in tone.
• To help you focus on tone when selecting colours, use the light, dark and bright method.
• Use an image-editing app on your phone or tablet to test tonal differences between colours.

I hope you have found this post helpful! Next week we'll be exploring the colour wheel and how to use it when selecting colours for eye-catching combinations. If you've found this post useful, please let me know in the comments below and be sure to share it with your fibre-loving friends.