Color is so inspiring and so daunting at the same time. It is everywhere and can make or break a project. It allows us to stay in our comfort zone or can break us free. It can brighten our mood or bring it down. Colors can also be used to define us and they can be things that represent our soul. I tend to think my colors of that of Fall. I am not a huge summer person or spring for that matter but when fall comes I feel like my soul comes alive and the inspiration flows.
There are some many ways we can use color in our projects. I often seek the world around me for inspirations for my projects. One of mys last big projects I finished was the Eastaboga which is a pattern designed from A.Opie Designs. She is a Birmingham Alabama designer and works at the wonderful store in Birmingham called In the Making. I actually live not far from Eastaboga the town that inspired the design and my favorite time of year to drive through that area is the fall. Here if we have a good rainy summer than fall is always ready to impress with her display of color. I used photos that I took to inspire the colors for my Eastaboga. The top photo is some of the leaf variation we get in our area. I pull from the deep burgundy, the orange, the brown of the dirt and the grey from the dead twigs. The beautiful fuchsia color came from the pot of mums on my front porch. The result was a stunning scarf that I am so eager to wear… however Alabama is not ready for cooler weather.
We can knit with a color that makes us think of a person or even represents the projects name. For instance the other day we happened to get lost in Georgia, I just so happened to see that we were less than 10 minutes from the amazing yarn store called Eat Sleep Knit. The hubby and kiddos remained in the car as I got to run in. I was only able to be in there for 10 minutes but I did a quick scan and picked up two yarns. One of them immediately made me think of my grandmother.
The yarn is Northbound Knitting and the base is their 75/25 the color is Anomaly. The yarn is a cream base with hints of yellow, purple and some reds. The yarn makes me think of my Grandmother and her Irises. She loved Irises and when she passed I dug up a lot of them and planted them at our home, each time we moved I would dig them up and take them with us. The irises have moved 4 times. They are a mixture of yellow and purples and when they bloom my heart always smiles. I wanted to use this yarn for something that reminds me of her and her garden so it will be the main color in my Passerine Hat and for the birds I will be using a dark grayish mini from Lorna’s Laces. I hope to cast that on in the upcoming month.
Which brings me to my current knit along. I love mystery knit alongs and Jimmy Beans Wool seems to always have one going. I have done several of theirs in the past so when I saw they were doing one based off the Book and now TV series Outlander I wanted to join in. Outlander is a book series written by a lady name Diana Gabaldon in 1991. Outlander is a story of time travel and love. I admit there are some situations of things that are not really pleasant but the way Diana builds her characters and the knowledge and information she uses regarding the Scottish is amazing. The TV series started in August 2014. They did an amazing job with it. The landscapes are beautiful and the dress in the 2nd season were breathtaking. When they released the Lorna’s Laces colors for the knit along I thought they were very pretty, you can see them by clicking here and here. I was not to excited by the greens so I decided for my I would bring in the colors from some of the clothes Claire wears. I want the main color to be the dress Clair has on when she goes through the stones, the blue from her coat before she went through the stones, the browns of her Scottish attire and the greens, yellow, red from some of the dress she wore while in France. The costumes on the show are really wonderful and even have their own following on social media.
The knit along with Jimmy Beans started last week when season 3 started. The knit along is a mystery knit along which means you buy the pattern that can be found here. Then you gather your supplies. You will need a main color fingering weight 430 yards and then some minis. The mini’s need to be 100 yards and you need 5 of them. I went with Madeline Tosh Twist as my main to represent Claire’s white dress. The color I am using is called modern fair isle. The mini’s I bought some Miss Babs and are mostly referred to as numbers but you can see them on my project page that can be found here. I think it is going to be a very fun knit along and there is still time for you to join. Clue 1 goes very fast and clue 2 will not be released until 9 am PST.
So how does colors inspire you? Do you draw inspiration from colors that remind you of someone special? Of a Flower? I place? or a Season? I would love to hear about it in the comments bellow.
I hope you have a wonderful day and Happy Yarning!
