What? Another giveaway??
Of course! And this one is all about colorwork from the Queen of Colors herself, Kristin Nicholas!
I personally had a chance to ask Kristin a question which was: “My question is this. Do you have a favorite color scheme, and if so, how do you break out of it? For example, my colors run with the colors of nature and the seasons, and I seem to be stuck in that rut. It’s not that I don’t like other colors, but that’s just what “calls” to me”.
And her answer was this, “I do have favorite color schemes but because I design for publications, I cannot let my personal likes totally dominate my work. My likes tend towards spicy color combinations of oranges, reds, chartreuses, fuschia, purple and espresso but I’m always changing it up a bit. When I plan a big project like a book, I always try to have projects that run the gamut of colors so that there is something for everyone
I find working with color to be the most satisfying, challenging, interesting and fun part of being a knitwear designer. Every project I design is a bit different. Like you, many times I am inspired by nature or by paintings or artwork. But I can easily be just as inspired by seeing a bunch of balls of yarn fall on the floor and make their own color combination.
Lots of times I try to challenge myself – take a color that I wouldn’t usually use and have it be the base color in a project. Then I combine it with some other shades in my yarn basket and I see where it takes me. I’m lucky that I have my own yarn named Julia (after my daughter) that I designed the colors for. Not all of them are my favorites but it is a balanced collection with something for everyone.
Often when I teach a class, I suggest to the knitters that they buy one skein each of an entire line of yarn. Then they should start swatching with it and working with the colors to see how they can combine them. Usually a line of yarn is “colored” by one person with an unique color vision and my experience is that the colors within the line will work together nicely. It can be an expensive way to start but it is one way to really start getting better with working with color and feeling more confident.
The most important part of my design work is swatching. I cannot overstate this too much. Working out a color combination on a swatch is where it all happens. My studio is full of bags of swatches that I have knit over the years. It is good to keep them because I refer back to them often for other ideas.
Kristin’s Blog: http://getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/ and Kristin’s Shop: http://kristinnicholas.com/shop.htm
Here’s the deets…… leave me a comment telling me about your own adventures in colorwork, no matter what kind, even if it’s only 2 different colors. If you don’t want to wait for the contest to end, you can get your own copy here: http://www.sixthandspringbooks.com/pressroom.php
Hurry, contest ends Friday, Feb 26!
I love working with vibrant colours. If I can find any pattern that has a Robbin Egg Blue in it or lime green, I am all over it. Our house is mixed with light warm tones with punches of vibrant colours throughout. For me, as long as the colours “pop” and make me feel happy…I am there 🙂
I have recently learned how to do color work (intrasia, fair aisle, double knitting, entrelac). I really want to knit the USA Olympic hat so that may be my first big challange.
The only color work I have done (in knitting) was years ago when my kids were small. I knitted them each one of those bulky knit sweaters from Mary Maxim with dinosaurs on them. Haven’t had the nerve to try again since, but I’d like to learn to do it properly.
I love using blues and browns together, oo.but want to get more ambitious and try more colourful patterns. I love some of the colourful mittens featured in Interweave knits etc.
I’m hoping to start knitting the Winter Olympic Reindeer after a trip to my LYS.
I’d love to be able to put my own colour combinations together too.
Thanks for a great site ;0)
I love the color blue so whenever I make a quilt, collage, or papercraft, it most usually contains the color blue. It is most interesting to see what colors work with blue.
Oh I really really want to win this one.I love working with tons of colors.
I’ve only done one project so far with color stranding. I got a pattern off Ravelry for an iPod cozy with an argyle pattern. I did the main color in blue and the diamonds and trim in green. I think my next color project will be a “fake fair isle” hat at Ravelry that uses varigated yarn instead of several others.
I realize lately lots of my projects are pink, maybe because the projects are for my daughters who love pink. For myself, these days I have eye for black and white, these would be the colour of my next project.
I love color work. My current favorite are mittens – just 2 colors knit in the round.
The only colorwork I have yet been able to do is when you switch off colors at the end of a row. I would so love to learn fair isle and intarsia.
I love working in shades of the same colour, or else contrasting colours like pink and blue, purple and yellow, and such. However, I am sometimes unsure if the tones will match and like to seek 2nd and 3rd opinions!
i have only dne one project with more than 2-3 colors, the sheep grazing bag. Loved it, but they were still mild in color. I have loved K’s projects online and her blog but have yet to own a book. She has inspired me to want to knit some bright colorful pillows for the home.
I had been married for about a year when I decided to knit my hubby a traditional Estonian fair isle sweater. So I got a ton of traditional wool, natural gray and natural white and a tiny bit of red (you need red around the neck and hands for protection magic). I had knitted a sweater once before, about 7-8 years before that in middle school. But for whatever reason I thought that I can just make it up as I go. And in the end I did have a sweater. The hem flares a bit and a year later I frogged 3/4 of the sleeves and reknit because the biceps part was a tad tight. It took me about as long to reknit the sleeves as the entire thing the first time, lol. Since we live in the Pacific Northwest the sweater is a bit too warm for him to wear here. But he does wear it on occasion and one year that we spent in Estonia he wore it a ton. I have since knit him a proper cardigan, in proportion and everything but he still likes that two colored fair isle 🙂
Hi there
I LOVE color
I have just started quilting and look for lots of fun colors – I am still trying to break out of the mold – but love using the color ircles on the selvege to assist with harmony. Then I try to find the yarn that goes with what I have chosen 🙂
Cheers
Catie
I’ve been eyeing this book! I’d love to win because so far my color work consists only of stripes! 🙂
—Tif
Wow – I’m a color junkie. I’m really into using different hand-painteds together.
I love color, brights and primitive colors. When I am working on something, I just put colors together, and if I like it, I use it. I go with what is pleasing to my eye, have no idea what values are, lol.
Debbie
I just LOVE Kristin’s work and own Kristin Knits which I thoroughly enjoy and knit a lot from! If pushed to choose one color scheme that I love most I would go with deep earthy reds and mossy greens and.. Oh well, anything that celebrates nature to the fullest 🙂
I’m a rank amateur. I made a blanket out of Vanna White’s yarn which changes colors at ends of rows. Would love to become proficient in this technique.
We found out we could have our kitchen, living room, and dinning room painted. The catch was that we had to be ready in a day and a half. All of our energy went into moving stuff. I had always wanted to do bold colors but never had the courage. We picked really bright primary colors, red, blue and yellow. If I had time to think about it, I would have stuck with a safe choice. We love the bright colors. It taught me to take risks with color in my sewing, decorating and craft projects.
I’d love to win the book. I use a lot of color in my knitting. I’d like to consider doing more stranded knitting.
I love color work. At least stranded, striped, and mosaic. Intarsia is difficult for me to get right, but someday I will try again. For Christmas I decided to get brave and try three colors at a time on one row.. need some more practice at that before it’s ready for public viewing!
Believe it or not, I am way more cautious about joining like colors than about combining colors that you wouldn’t expect to see together. For instance I get nervous if I work from dark blue through, say 4 steps, to light blue. Not sure why that is! But I’ll pair green and pink or orange and blue any day!
Color is a fascination that draws in most artists. I love to experiment with color and how it can change with different mediums. Mixing up colors and seeing what occurs is too much fun. I sometimes get so caught up in the play that I forget about the project for which I was originally experimenting!
Please put my name in the hat for your giveaway. I have never been brave with colors and usually borrow someone else color scheme.
Thanks!
Pattyjo
She is one of my heroines. I love lots of colors and try to incorporate many. I’m sure the book would provide lots of inspiration!
Please add my name to the hat. I may have an unexpected adventure in colorwork because while I was reading this blog post, my 1yo grabbed my knitting bag. She has the rainbow sock-in-progress in one hand and the orange striped sock-in-progress in the other. (Thank goodness for magic loop, which is more 1yo-resistant than DPNs.) Off to untangle…
My colorwork is always pretty boring… shades of greens, brown with beige, blue with gray – no brights, nothing startling. I guess I’m a timid colorer.
To match our 3 mth old grand daughter’s snowsuit, I hoped to find two or three of the colours. But I found all five colours (aqua, coral, yellow, orange and green). The little hat looks fabulous. I love colourwork! and I would love a copy of Kristin’s book!
I like to work with color and would love to learn more about it! Most often I’ve done simple stranded knitting patterns or stripes. I’ve also relied on yarns that do the color changes for me. I want to try more bright combinations and also see what I can learn to do with embellishments; Kristin’s work is a real inspiration!
went to Meg’s Knitting Camp in 2006 and did my first Fair Isle/Two Color stranded project – several pillbox hats (like three over the three day weekend).
just recently designed three hats for three nephews – pirate, fire engine and airplane hats.
and designed and am knitting for Knitting Olympics a fair isle vest of pirate designs for one of the nephews.
love KN’s work and would LOVE to get that book!
During my beginning class, my instructor really quickly showed us how you could use both hands to do a little color knitting. I thought it looked fascinating, so picked up my needles at home, grabbed four colors of yarn (white, dark blue, med. blue, and light blue) and knit up a hat. I hadn’t heard the “rule” for Fair Isle yet (only 2 colors per row), so I managed to get three colors going in one row before I decided that 4 colors between two hands was going to make my head hurt. Lots of fun!
Have looked at this book and given it as a gift, but have yet to purchase it for myself – love Kristin’s books and her blog!
I read getting stitched on the farm everyday, love her work, and pictues, would be thrilled with the book beyond belief. I love to challenge colors, and will save all of my scrap balls and just knit a scarf picking up one little ball after another. everyone i have made have been more popular that the scarves the yarn was left over from. mixing textures as well as colors is so much fun and brings real art to your projects
My adventure with color doesn’t go farther than two color stripes,usually black and white.I would like to learn to colour more from this book.
I’m not very experienced with color but love it. This would be a great book for inspiration, I think.
I tend to lean towards blues and purples and have to force myself to the other side. When I do this, however, I come up with more interesting results, I think, than when I stay with what I am comfortable with.
I’ve been looking at Kristin’s book on the internet for some time….it look’s great and I would love to be entered into the drawing for it.
I’m looking forward to seeing this book as I need to break out from my long-time love of traditional Scandinavian/Nordic patterns! I don’t mind many colors, but need help for some “Oomph” 🙂
Whenever I read magazines and find interesting color combinations, I tear out and save the pages. Then, when dyeing wool or starting a new project, I refer to my pages for color inspiration.
I love playing with color. I esp like purple, lime and orange. Oh, yeah, magenta too. No pastels either. Maybe some black to set it off.
I’m starting to really like brown with different colors… especially pink!
I made a pair of socks
with a black and white
check leg. I was starting
out on my sock making adventure
and these were my second pair.
The cuffs turned out wonderful
but one sock foot was bigger
than the other!
I can’t wait to get a look in this
book!
Thank you
I was shooting for an autumny looking icelandic sweater and while the concept worked in my head the brown and orange toned sweater did not work in reality. I am working hard to come up with color choices and combinations that are my own and not just what is depicted in a pattern. It can be challenging for me at times. This book is inspiring!
I have a small fiber farm and love dyeing my yarn with natural dyes. I have been looking for inspiration for combining my yarn into one project. Kristin’s books have given me that inspiration!
I love color! Reds, oranges, yellows are my “Go To” colors. A couple of years ago I participated in a challenge and worked with colors I would never have put together – the sweater is now my favorite & the one that gets the most compliments. I’ve worked with Kristin’s patterns and her ideas are inspiring!
Woohoo, a chance to win Kristen’s book?
Count me in…pretty please.
Love her use of color and would like to be as bold as she is.
I mostly use subdued colors but would love to try incorporating more color.
My highlight in color work was a xmas tree sweater in cascade 220. Bright red with a green christmas tree! my next project is a little more subdued. I have the beginnings of a heathered teal/aqua and chocolate brown sweater on needles. I definitely go for more nature-ish colors, browns and greens with hints and dashes of brights.
Color makes me happy, especially rich jewel tones. I love playing with my stash and experimenting with new combinations. It’s like a real-life color wheel.
Colorwork means experimentation for me. When I first started knitting over 20 years ago I couldn’t wait to change yarns, colors, and make designs and Fair Isle. Then, I got lazy– I had kids and needed “brainless” knitting where no patterns were necessary and no twisting and untwisting yarn strands. Now that my youngest child is 5 I’m ready to get back to colorwork. I’ve missed it!