On 11 January 2026, I put a post on Instagram saying that I was thinking about starting a Colour Swatch Journal Group and asked if anyone would like to join me. The post almost went viral.
What was particularly interesting was the response. It became clear that people wanted to make their own colour journal themselves. They wanted to learn about colour, experiment with their own yarn and discover techniques that would help them develop their understanding of colour within their own projects.
Patterns aren’t necessarily expensive, but yarn is, so getting the colour right is important. Of course, colour is personal — we all see and respond to it differently — but there are principles that can help us make better colour choices: understanding contrast, dark and light, saturation, avoiding muddy combinations and knowing how colours interact with one another.
So My Colour Swatch Journal Group idea was born.
What I learned from Cohort One
The first cohort started on 1 April and it was a big group. At first, people enthusiastically shared their work and information in the private Facebook group, and something rather wonderful developed: a real sense of community.
But as the six months went on, participation gradually dropped.
There are lots of reasons for that. Family commitments, holidays and simply life getting in the way. But I also learned something important: six months is a long time. The original programme was also very inexpensive, so perhaps there wasn’t quite enough financial commitment to keep everyone committed to their own development.
Last Sunday, 30 August, I held a celebration of the work from Cohort One in our final zoom session.
By then the group had become much smaller. Seven people came to the presentation and six shared their work. But I was absolutely delighted by what I saw and proud of their stories about what they had learned.
Many people in the group had learned, experimented and developed.
I want to say thank you to the whole group because they taught me something too: how important community and celebration are within a learning group and this became apparent in the session 5 where people stepped up to help each other. See blog post When Colour Becomes Kindness on July 27th
Cohort Two began on 1 August, and already I can see a difference.
The Facebook group is busy and prolific. People are sharing their work, asking questions and really embracing the process. They have more questions for me, and I am learning from them too — particularly about the challenges people face when they are developing their understanding of colour and how to step out of their comfort zones with new learning.
The group is open to everyone. There are people of different ages and experiences. Here is a group image of their first swatches. They will develop as they learn to colour blend. I am loving seeing their first swatches and excited to see where they will go.
And now I’m really excited to announce that Cohort Three will begin on 1 January 2027.
Cohort Three
I have revised the programme into a focused four-month master class
Each month there will be a comprehensive newsletter on the 1st, with work to complete using your own yarn. There will be 20 exercises across the four months and approximately 12 video tutorials shared in the Facebook group. Everything is done at the participant’s own pace. They can finish 2 months after everyone else, if they wish. Below are some inspiration for colour images from my summer flowers as inspiration will also be part of learning.
At the end of each month we will meet together so that I can go through the newsletter, answer questions and talk through the challenges and discoveries people are having.
And the private Facebook group will continue to be the place where work is shared and the community develops and I drop little videos – Facebook group is not mandatory but it is a wonderful place to share and feel safe and excited to do so as you can see from the swatches that I have shared (with agreement) from both cohorts.
The newsletter, videos, exercises and meetings are really just the mechanism.
What matters is what you develop, what you learn and how your understanding of colour changes.
That’s what makes this a master class.
Interested in joining?
Cohort Three starts on 1 January 2027, and I’ll be taking bookings during September to early December. There will be an early bird price this time running between 7th – 20th September.
If you are interested, please go to my Online Workshops page and fill in the registration-of-interest form.
I’ll email everyone who registers next week on 7th September with the full overview, schedule and price.
I’m really excited to see what Cohort Three will discover.
On 7th September, All information will be sent to those who have registered interest in the next cohort – early bird bookings from 7th – 20th Sept. complete registry of interest form on this workshops page
tracey doxey 