Tag: swatching

September Colour

September colour

Today, I’ve been thinking about colour again, especially as my beautiful garden Dahlia are coming to an end.

I don’t think of colour as a palette chosen from a shade card, or a set of colours that are supposed to work together, or from a carrier bag in front of the tele but colour as something you discover by looking – really looking.  And this year, I have really looked at the flowers that I have grown.

So, I’ve been sitting with Rowan Kidsilk Haze and a handful of my last flowers. I’ve knitted little swatches, changed colours, changed my mind, pulled them out, tried something else and watched what happens when one shade sits beside another.  I feel the colours more than just look and I have a very exciting new knitting project in the pipeline. 

This is the part of knitting I never seem to tire of but don’t get much time to do. A full day just knitting and pushing colours and flowers around is a true gift of time and creativity.

A colour can look completely different depending on what is next to it. A pink becomes warmer beside rust. A green suddenly looks sharper beside red. A quiet, almost muddy shade can become the colour that holds everything together or becomes the subtle change that the eye doesn’t always see but the mind sees it. 

A Creative practice swatching and developing skills and outcomes,  is why I started the Colour Swatch Journal.

I wanted others to learn to explore that process of looking and experimenting rather than simply deciding in advance what a “good” colour combination might be.

I’ve been knitting for more than forty years and I’m still surprised by and LOVE colour.

I’m currently working on something new with these colours. I’m not quite ready to show you yet — but I will be soon.

September is looking very beautiful from where I’m sitting.

Want to explore colour with me?

The next Colour Swatch Journal group will begin in January. It’s a space for experimenting with colour, keeping a visual record of what you discover and developing your own understanding of colour relationships.  It is a place to learn and grow and take those skills into your own knitting projects after

There is more information about my Colour Swatch Journal Group on my workshops page which is here

Look what participants became capable of making when they joined my Colour Swatch Journal Group

Earlier this year I put out the idea of a Colour Swatch group on Instagram.   I was inundated with people wanting more information.  Finally,  a group of knitters joined me at the beginning of March for a monthly Colour Swatch Journal Club – lasting for 6 months.

I hoped people would become more adventurous with colour and even after 3 sessions, I am so excited by their results.    What I didn’t expect was the extraordinary level of creativity, experimentation and personal interpretation that began appearing week after week.

I am so proud of my Colour Swatch Journal Group’s development.  Here is a peep inside the Colour Swatch Journal Club private FaceBook Group where  participants share their swatches and colour development.

I am so proud of them – I’m  watching their confidence grow through Colour and swatch experimentation.

My swatch journal club is developmental learning – this group is develops month on month,  over 6 months with  a sessional newsletter pdf emailed on the 1st of each month, including step by step exercises, inspiration, and charts, research and photo tutorials –  which encourage understanding of value of colour, tone, contrast, colour blending and then confidence to  run free with all their knowledge – it is a group who love to learn The Joy of Slow Colour Exploration   There is also a private Facebook group to share their work and I meet online via zoom at the end of every month.

Each month, I send participants tiny experiments and developmental learning exercises – the outcomes of which I am sharing here today.

Developing A Small Swatch Can Change Everything in your practice.

Their notebooks and journals are filling up with unexpected colour combinations and these wonderful women are developing their own visual language.   They are learning to see colour differently and their swatches are becoming little artworks.  Their journals will be so exciting to see at the end – we will have a show and tell.

“Some participants became fascinated by…”

  • contrast
  • The Shetland motifs
  • garden colours and inspiration
  • colour blending
  • unexpected palettes
  • historical references
  • even experimenting with steeking.

This is What Happens When Knitters Start Trusting me to teach them how to use Colour in their projects.

The next series of my Colour Swatch Journal group sessional newsletters and meetings will start in September – so it will be a wonderful Autumn / Winter learning.   And, instead of 6 months timescale, I am going to condense the exercises and newsletters into 4 months.

If you would like to go on the wait list to be sent the new information ( Around June time) then complete the contact form below and I will be in touch in June.

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All swatches are taken from my Sea Urchin Hat pattern / Tree and Star Hat Pattern and Kaleidoscope Junper – All found here

And the Fair Isle OXO motifs are taken from my Fair Isle Chart and Stash Buster Neck warmer .