Thinking About Color

It's been a while since I wrote about knitting. I've been doing a lot of designing in the last few months, and the only piece that I've finished since my cowl pal's cowl is for publication in spring of next year, so I have very little in the way of show and tell these days. Although I love to see fellow bloggers stretch their wings and publish, it is always sad to me when they stop blogging about their current knits. Many of my blogging "generation" have gone on to publish patterns, author books, and/or mother children, and as a result there is less knitting content out there to peruse. The published content and wee ones are wonderful, but I do miss knitting blogs. As a consequence of missing other blogs, I've decided to try to share some of my thoughts on design and process with you as I work through some pieces this fall and winter. The posts will probably still be a bit sparse, as I've been in more of a doing place than a writing place, and I find myself spread between mommying, wife-ing, working, designing, reading, exercising, etc., which leaves me rather thin. But I miss everyone and I enjoy the back and forth, so I'm going to give it a go.

Yes, I am lamely posting photos of the books
in this post. But they're good!Lately I’ve been focused on color. Although I enjoy color, I tend to gravitate to texture and line in my designs, so I really haven't taken the opportunity to design much colorwork in the past. But I've been doing a bit of designing for Classic Elite recently, and when I saw their shade card for one of my favorite CEY yarns, Wool Bam Boo, I was inspired to play with some color combinations for a Fair Isle piece or two.

I started the swatching process by turning to one of my favorite Fair Isle references, Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, and re-read the chapters on technique and use of color. The book was even better than I remembered. Most of the references I've read on color in the past have discussed traditional color theory - primary colors, complements, shades, etc. - and which combinations are likely to look pleasing together. This is all fine and well, but it has never been particularly helpful to me. I understand how to put two colors together, but it's much trickier to put several colors together, and color theory has not taught me much about how to go about doing that. For me, Feitelson's book has the answers, or at least the starting points for finding my own answers.

The Art of Fair Isle Knitting discusses the ways in which color combinations work in different media. In painting, colors blend into one another, creating depth easily, almost thoughtlessly. In quilting, particularly when working in solids, the transitions are stark, creating a one-dimensional “blocky” structure naturally, which can be counteracted by shading, using varying pattern sizes, and other techniques if one is going for depth. Fair Isle, particularly with traditional Shetland wool, falls somewhere in between. There are lines of contrast to be sure, but the fuzziness of the wool allows certain colors to grade into one another in a way that falls in the middle of the spectrum. By keeping this distinction in mind, I began to have a clear mental picture of how different colors of wool would react with one another.

A new classic on designing with gorgeous patterns.Feitelson lays down a primary rule of Fair Isle knitting in her book: you must be able to "read" the pattern through the color changes. This seems like a simple enough rule, and one that is probably self-evident, but if you look at enough Fair Isle patterning in designs and stitch dictionaries, you will notice that not everyone follows it. Sometimes breaking the rule works - the designer alternates between segments where the pattern "reads" and sections where it is murkier, creating a pleasant striping effect, which is inevitably a by-product of all Fair Isle designs. Other times, not so much.

As I looked at different Fair Isle patterns, categorizing them in to those that followed the rule and those that didn't, those that worked for me and those that didn't, I was reminded of another good source book that I picked up recently, CookieA's Sock Innovation. Sock Innovation doesn't delve into colorwork, but it does discuss general principles of harmonious design, and one of the take-away messages that I found useful in it was that breaking the laws of symmetry and mirroring in texture patterns is acceptable, and often desirable, but it is important that a break from the expected appear purposeful rather than looking like a mistake. Looking at the Fair Isle patterns that didn't work for me it was obvious that this was the problem. The color combinations that did not work did not read as deliberate choices - they read as mistakes.

In choosing color combinations, Ann Feitelson's personal method, which has worked well for me so far, is to choose two to three color sequences and then combine them. If you have read The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook, you will recognize this technique. In it, Lynn Vogel discusses how she often combines yarns from two or more different rovings (which are each composed of a color sequence), and knits by alternating the yarns in different ways throughout the sock. The results are stunning and create depth and complexity in a simple, non-patterned sock. Another example of use of this technique is the well-known and well-loved Chevron Scarf, which employs two different colorways of sock yarn that might not usually harmonize well to make a lovely, cohesive scarf. The color combination works because each color grouping within the two colorways reads as a sequence.

One of my favorite spinning books.It only makes sense that this would work for Fair Isle design as well. Color sequences can be chosen in a variety of ways using our old friend color theory. You can create sequences of tints, shades, tones, etc. (The Art of Fair Isle Knitting discusses many more ways to create color sequences and provides photographs depicting the results, which is incredibly helpful.) The important thing is that each color grouping used reads as a sequence and that the elements of each sequence are distinct enough that the background and the pattern stand out clearly when knit. To determine whether the colors you've chosen truly from a sequence, Feitelson suggests that you make a swatch of each sequence, simply striping the colors in sequence order (to visualize this, just think of a shade card for house paint colors, ordered to grade into one another in a way that the eye follows logically). When you have two or three sequences that you like, swatch in the Fair Isle pattern of your choice (preferably several) to see how the sequences work together. Sometimes there will be glitches and a color or two will need to be replaced with another, but for the most part the method works.

There are many other methods and tips in The Art of Fair Isle Knitting that teach how the sequences you choose are likely to interact and which colors will pop or blend when used together. If you are really interested in designing your own color patterns, I highly recommend picking up a copy and studying it. Feitelson provides an exhaustive array of swatches to depict her methods and show you how they work in practice. The book also includes a section on the history of Fair Isle knitting and several of Feitelson’s own original designs. The patterns in the book are traditional in shape and should appeal to you if you prefer a classic Fair Isle look, but the color combinations and stitch patterns can also be employed to create more modern, edgy pieces if that is your preference. I generally look for a little edge, and I found the designs to be a helpful, inspirational resource.

Using this as a starting point, I turned to my own color and design preferences. Again, this sounds self-evident, but often the colors that I gravitate to will not effectively achieve the final effect that I am aiming for. Thinking out how to best approach creating the final look early in the process avoids the pitfall of creating a pattern I dislike from a group of colors that I love. So right from the start I spent some time thinking about what I want in a final design. I like a Fair Isle pattern to read consistently, but I generally prefer that the demarcations in the individual sequences and between the sequences not be too stark, so I chose my color sequences with those parameters in mind.

Going about the process deliberately has made a huge difference. One swatch led to another and each pattern suggested a new direction to follow. After a little swatching with different patterns I found a combination that felt right, and several color combinations that worked well together. I took the stitch pattern and laid it out in Microsoft Excel (Marnie has a great tutorial on how to do that here), and played with varying combinations of the two color sequences I chose to create a large repeat, which will serve as the basis for my Fair Isle designs. When the repeat looked right I began to knit. The sequence looks wonderful so far. I love the interplay of the colors. As it has unfolded it has taken me in new directions with the lines of my original design concepts. Next I will play with edgings and finishing treatments, and the process will evolve again….