How To
Summer Reruns: Ann Weaver Teaches Color
Ah, the dog days of summer. One more week until Labor Day weekend here in the United States. We’ve eaten a few kilograms of tomatoes, and started finding anonymous bags of zucchini on the front porch. It’s the time of year when, as kids, we plopped in front of the box fan and watched reruns of Family Affair and The Brady Bunch, with lashings of The Price Is Right and Dark Shadows.
We’re taking this time—starting today and into next week—to revisit some pieces from our contributors.
First up: Ann Weaver’s brilliant series on how to use color in knitting. Ann’s insight and practical advice is fresh as paint, and a big help, whether you’re designing a log cabin blanket or picking colors for your next sweater.
Keep an ear out for the ice cream truck, and enjoy!
By Ann Weaver:
Color: A Cheerful Guide for Knitters
Color: A Cheerful Guide for Knitters, Part II
Color: A Cheerful Guide for Knitters, Part III
Color: A Cheerful Guide for Knitters, Part IV
Color: A Cheerful Guide for Knitters, Part V
This Could Come in Handy
I remember rushing home from school to watch Dark Shadows! So scary then. So campy now. And Family Affair…. always wanted a Mrs Beasley doll. Now off to reread Ann Weaver’s brilliance
One has to remember with any color that it has 3 hues. If you take the color Yellow for instance and look at it head on in it’s pure state it is just bright yellow However if you look 1 shade to the left that bright yellow looks drabber and that’s because it has either dark brown or black in it and conversely if you you look one shade to the right of the main color it is a softer yellow and that’s because it has white in it. That’s how I see color and with colors like green or purple for instance one can manipulate the color by altering the ratio of blue to yellow for green or red to blue for purple. Orange is the same way alter the ratio of ted to yellow and notice how it turns from pumpkin orange to red orange. Less Red and more yellow will give you a sunflower color. With purple it’s more red will give you a red violet, more blue will give you periwinkle. That’s how my color eye see’s color.
I took a look at the projects on Anne Weaver’s Ravelry page. Brilliant in every way, Thank you for putting this together in one easy to save post.
Always learning from you ladies. Thanks!
So Interesting, thanks for running this again.
My favorite colors are pink and orange and my most hated is beige. Weaver tells us that her students most hated colors were yellow, i[pink and orange. It is true that you really have to work to make orange look good in the winter, the season we all knit for.
Coral is in this year, and I have coral (actually orange) curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond, a mass market retailer if there ever was one. Back in the seventies, I remember an art teacher telling me she hated gray and the class agreeing with her. The fad for gray walls might be over now but it was big a few years ago. So much emotion involved with color.
I find colour a personal preference. Just because a designer or someone else says that certain colours should go together, e.g the colour “kits” that are put together. I would prefer to select my own as I don’t like someone else’s colour ideas – like to me they don’t match or go together.
Put me in the column for those possessing strange, evidently constitutionally-based, revulsions for certain color combinations. And mint green, that weak but eye-scarring color usually called “Mint” – arrrrggggh! There are others…. Crazy thing is for years I did and taught botanical art and was, you guessed it, awash in green of every sort. Even the occasional bit of…mint.
Thank you for running this article again. I started knitting in 2018 so it is new to me!!