Pantone’s Colors of the Year: Pink and Blue

The Pantone Color Institute makes a lot of press for itself around this time every year by announcing what it predicts will be the “color of the year” in the coming year. Based on its trend research and what’s going on in design and in the wider world, they make a choice of what they think we’ll be seeing more of on the runways, in home decor and elsewhere.

Or two choices, as is the case for 2016.

The first-ever colors of the year are Rose Quartz and Serenity, or, put less poetically, pastel pink and blue.

You can guess that the mood of the world played a part in a color named “Serenity” sharing top honors:

As consumers seek mindfulness and well-being as an antidote to modern day stresses, welcoming colors that psychologically fulfill our yearning for reassurance and security are becoming more prominent. Joined together, Rose Quartz and Serenity demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace.

Pantone calls Rose Quartz “persuasive yet gentle,” while Serenity is “weightless and airy…bringing feelings of respite and relaxation even in turbulent times.”

As you might guess, its suggested color pairings rely heavily on other pastels, as well as light and medium grays and browns. And I do love pink and brown, I have to say.

What do you think about this color combo? Is it calm and collected, or too babyish for your tastes? Will you knit anything using these colors in the coming year? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo via Pantone.]

Next Pattern:

As I write this, it’s probably time to start thinking about winter knitting if you haven’t already. And it’s definitely time to think about gift knitting if you have any of that you plan to do for the holidays.

The Dreamy Waves Scarf from Knit Picks, designed by Stacey Winklepleck, would be a great project to go in either category.

It uses two different multicolored yarns and a simple repeating wave pattern to make a project that looks a lot more complicated and dramatic than it is. The gradient look happens naturally just by switching which yarn you’re knitting with.

This pattern uses worsted weight yarn so it’s a pretty quick project even though a scarf is large and this one is pretty wide. It measures 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) wide and 63 inches or 120 cm long. Of course you can make it longer or shorter as you like. As written it takes one ball of each color so it’s a pretty economical project, too.

It’s rated for intermediate knitters but if you know how to do various increases and decreases you’ll be all set. The pattern uses knit 2 together, make 1 left and right, centered double decrease and slip slip knit. All of the stitches are explained in a glossary in the pattern so even if you haven’t done all of them it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The pattern also includes tons of options for different colorways in yarn that Knit Picks sells, so you can see how different combinations knit up before you buy the yarn. That’s such a great idea!

Of course if you already have two multicolored yarns with long color runs on hand, you can absolutely use them, too. It might also be fun, but would give you a totally different look, to use a solid color and a bunch of scraps or one multicolored yarn to see how the different colors play together. So many options!

You can grab this free pattern and check out all the color options at Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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