Designing and Colors
I am currently working on designing a sweater using the techniques from the soon to be released Ethnic Knitting Discovery by Donna Druchunas. The finished sweater is to be a part of an online gallery to complement the book at ethnicknitting.com. This book starts with the simplest of ethnic sweaters in terms of techniques and design and walks you through a small sample/useful swatch project and a couple of sweaters from four different regions – Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, and the Andes. It is the first in a series that I understand will address increasingly complex ethnic knitting.
The patterns in the book are really non-patterns. But, don’t freak out about that! Even if you are patently not a designer or even if you are a bit afraid of the math involved you can knit a sweater from this book. There are three different worksheets for every project so you can choose the one that works for you. The first is just a schematic on which you note your dimensions and gauge and you just fly by wire, working off of the graphic. The second provides some more hand holding by giving you a chart to fill in with all the important numbers and the notes you need to do the math ahead of time. The third worksheet will hold your hand through every single step, helping you to fill in the numbers but still providing you with step-by-step direction on how to knit and assemble the sweater. For me, because I’m an experienced knitter who has stayed away from garments for myself for a variety of reasons through the years I’ll probably end up using a conglomeration of all three.
I am working on the Norwegian Boatneck sweater (those of you who have been around for a while, or were at least here for last winter’s baking activities are probably wondering what took me so long to start a project like this). There are some traditional stitch patterns and guidance on making one as shown in the book illustration with the yarn gauge of your choice and sized to fit you. I am mixing up the stitch patterns to make it a unique sweater, just for me. I’m also borrowing a few things from the following chapter such as a modified drop shoulder rather than the standard drop shoulder because I’m not a traditionalist. Ha, ha, I know some of you are laughing at that. Okay, let me put it another way – just because a given construction is the traditional way does not mean I won’t make modifications so that the finished garment will be more flattering on my plus-sized frame.
Even before I started choosing my stitch motifs and the final dimensions (still not 100% decided on that since I own nothing with this type of construction from which to take measurements) the first step was choosing the colors of the sweater. I could have stuck with the traditional black/ivory/red color combo, but I already have a sweater in that color combination in my closet. Oh what a game choosing colors can be! Especially when you don’t have a photo of an already completed version of the sweater to analyze.
My poor, poor friends and family have been inundated with schematics approximating the color combo choices of the yarn I will be using for this sweater (Suri Merino from Plymouth if you were wondering) all week long. Amanda in particular has been scrutinizing nearly every single option I have pulled from my hat. Others have felt utterly overwhelmed at the variety I came up with (and if you are reading this and thinking I’m talking about you – you were not alone).
It is in this process of choosing my colors that I realized you all may enjoy following along in my design process and decision making on this. It should give you a good sense of Ethnic Knitting Discovery and the infinite sweater possibilities it and the rest of the series can provide you. I hope it also reminds me of the decisions I made along the way so I can write a helpful abbreviated diary to go along with the sweater photo at ethnicknitting.com.
Going through the color choices also reminded me of the struggle and uncertainty many feel in choosing colors for their projects. I often feel I have a good inner color sense and I also have the training and experience from my pre-knitting life to back me up, yet I was waffling on my color choices - BIG TIME. So, I think I will also be addressing some color theory as applied to knitting (though really what I talk about will be applicable to most any craft) in the coming weeks.
At this point I am thinking of touching on these topics:
- Ways in which yarns and color can contrast
- Common color harmonies and how to use them to aid you in color selection
- Analyzing the contrast and harmony used in a published pattern
- Safe ways to swap out colors in a published pattern
- More daring ways to successfully swap out colors in a published pattern
- How to use a spreadsheet and photo editing software to aid you in color selection
I’m only starting to formulate the posts for these so if you have some specific questions about color or color and knitting, leave a comment! In the meantime, perhaps you would like to fill out a meme on color – either at your own blog and link back to this post or in the comments… Just cut and paste and answer and spread the word!
1. What is your current favorite color?
2. Had your favorite color changed over the years?
3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? (Do you see it in the fashion rags or on the clothes rack or in the linen aisle right now? How about 5 years ago?)
4. What is your favorite color combination?
5. Is that combination a popular one? (Is it use in prints you see in the stores and catalogs and magazines now? How about 5 years ago?)
6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? (Are you a stranded knitter? Do you prefer simple stripes? Do you prefer just accents at the hems/collars?)
7. What colors look good on you?
8. What colors look bad on you?
9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them?
10. What is your favorite neutral color? black/white/ivory/tan/brown/gray – if brown or gray do you prefer cool or warm versions of those or does it matter? And, how dark?
11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published? If yes, which one? What do you not like about the published colors?
The answers to these questions should prove useful to you as I work my way through this color series.
Those who are perfectly happy choosing patterns based upon the colors published, don’t worry. These posts will take a lot more work behind the scenes than I usually take for my blog posts (and I have a lot more work to do these days as well) so there are certain to be non-color and even non-design posts too! Quite likely cooking, gardening, and reading posts will still pop up now again too.
