Yesterday, Sunday, between 5 and 6 pm, I hosted our Colour Swatch Group Zoom session.
A small group of us from across the world met, and together we spent an hour talking about colour in knitting. We explored the monthly newsletter, looked at four different ways of knitting the same colours into one motif, talked about where inspiration comes from, and how sometimes the best colour choices are the ones that come from your heart rather than your head, or a carrier bag in front of the tele.
Afterwards, as always, I opened the session up for questions and for people to share their work.
Then something happened that, in seven years of teaching, I have never experienced before.
One of the ladies in the group isn’t really a knitter. Instead of sharing knitting, she shared a photograph that had inspired her. It was a photograph of her mother holding an enormous bunch of pink and peach and pale read flowers.
This lady generously shared how she had only met her mother ten months ago. In the photograph, her mother was surrounded the flowers picked for her by her daughter —flowers she absolutely loved. Looking at the photograph made her smile. This lady’s mother has severe dementia and she mentioned that some days she knows she is her daughter. Some days she thinks she is a friend. Some days she believes she is an enemy.
Every week, my participant drives five hours to visit her mother and five hours home again. Alongside that, she has been moving house. Life has simply been overwhelming.
She had already ordered yarn in exactly the colours of those flowers because she wanted to knit my Sea Urchin Mitts for her mum. But between visiting her mother, moving home and everything else, she just hadn’t found the time.
As she shared her story, it was heartwarming and sad and heartbreaking. And incredibly beautiful.
Then something happened that silenced every single one of us.
Another participant simply said,
“Send me your list of colours. I’ll knit the mitts for you and post them to you.”
That was it.
No fuss.
No hesitation.
Just kindness.
I could feel tears welling up. The lady telling her story was emotional and several of us were in the group. It was one of those painfully beautiful moments that stays with you long after the Zoom call has ended.
What made it even more extraordinary was this.
The lady who offered to knit the mitts lives on the Isle of Wight and The lady she offered to them for lives in America.
Two women who had never met, connected simply through colour workshop, creativity, the opportunity to open up and kindness.
All I could think to do in that moment was send both of them the patterns for the mitts and the matching hat. It felt like the smallest contribution compared to what had just unfolded, but it was what I could offer. In all my 7 years of teaching colour work online across the world, I have never witnessed such altruistic instant kindness and I was very moved.
Tonight reminded me that Colour Swatch Group has become something I never imagined it would be. I thought I was bringing people together to explore colour. Instead, colour has brought people together to explore humanity and we are a community.
My Participants’ colour journals have become more than pages filled with palettes and inspiration. They have become places where stories are shared, where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and where complete strangers quietly remind one another what kindness looks like.
I don’t think any of us present in that zoom session will forget that moment of pure kindness. I know I never will.
If you would like to join me in my next Cohort of Colour Swatch Journal Group, we will be starting In January 2027 as my 2nd Cohort starts on Aug 1st is is now Full. Nip to the workshops page and send me a contact form, to say you are interested in information for any future session.
Link to the workshop contact page is here
Happy knitting -much love – Tracey
tracey doxey 