I have a few more guest posts lined up for the month—there are just so many awesome people making awesome things with words or videos or photographs that I couldn’t not include. I’m hoping to be able to keep up the guest posting in the future, though not quite this frequently (as I’m generally not trying to fill every day of a month).
Today’s guest post is from Teresa at Canary Knits. You’ll remember that Teresa’s the brilliant mind behind the Ghosts eBook giveaway from last month. Today Teresa has a new pattern and takes a look at how color affects our yarn buying and knitting lives. Be sure to leave feedback for Teresa in the comments!
Colour: the Eternal Internal Struggle
I’m in love with colour.
I think many knitters are; colour is the #1 factor in my yarn purchasing choices. It’s led me down a rainbow of paths. An obsession with green, fixation on red, crush on yellow. (I’m currently in a long term relationship with orange. Me and that colour, whoo boy, that’s soul mate stuff happening there.) It’s always the vibrant, jewel-like hues that get my money to a-flyin’ out of my wallet.
With a substantial stash of these sorts of colours, and about ten years of knitting behind me, you’d think I’d have connected the disconnect between what I *wear* and what I *knit*.
That is, I create FO after FO, and find that my hand knit garment wardrobe is sadly underused.
On a quest to understand my forlorn finished knits, I put a couple questions to some friends of mine a few weeks ago; and I put them to you now too:
What hand knit item do you wear the MOST, and what COLOUR is it?
Do you think the colour affects your choice to wear it?
A few interesting take-aways from my mini survey:
-Holy cow people love blue! Far and away the favourite colour
-If this sampling is anything to go by, I’m far too impulsive a yarn buyer: Most people buy their favourite colour and wear their wearables into the ground
I’ve been so head-over-heels for those bright hues that I never considered how I actually wear clothes day-to-day.
So, when I saw a pretty (boring), extremely oatmeal-y neutral shade of light brown in a sproingy merino (technical term, that!), I decided to test my colour impulse vs. worn FOs.
And wouldn’t you know it: The pretty (boring) extremely oatmeal-y neutral shade of light brown has turned into a pair of legwarmers I can’t stop wearing. Truly, can’t stop. And I know it’s the colour. I can project in my mind the multitudinous outfits I can wear this colour with, so many of which would just not work if they were my beloved orange, yellow, red, or green.
PS: It’s super awesomesauce cool that Threadpanda has allowed me to guest post on her lovely blog! Thanks!
Oh yes, and please comment with your answer to the colour/yarn question. I’m curious! (especially about that blue theory. Do you all love blue?)
I’ve been trying to keep my garments neutral lately because I LOVE pops of color in my accessories–especially red, orange, and purple. What stands out in my mind is the pattern “Rupe” by Knittibell on Rav. I worked that up using two skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Glazed Carrot. It’s my favorite orange ever. Balance is key, but beyond that, anything goes!
I love autumn colours, and nearly always gravitate to them in the yarn shop as well as in my closet. The things I wear are green, brown, rusty colours. I almost never wear blue – any time I knit with it, my mom ends up with a gift even if that wasn’t the plan.
I am a blue-wearer too. But it’s mostly because my eyes are blue and that color really makes them brighter.
In terms of socks, the wilder the color, the better. It’s like a party for my feet.
I know what you mean, Teresa! I am totally drawn to colour as well and have really had to think about my choices too. I realised I typically tend to buy neutrals in sweaters – especially grey – but always get sucked in by a juicy coloured yarn!
Very interesting! I will continue my pursuit of colour-based research 🙂 Thanks all!
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