Author: Gusman

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Is it Too Hot to Knit?

Knitting socks in public

I hear all the time from people who can’t think about knitting in the summer time. Have you heard this too?  Maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s just my job, but I knit when it’s cold and I knit when it’s hot. But I don’t knit outside, in fact I don’t do much outside in the summers of Maryland. It’s been really hot and muggy here during summertime. It is hard to breathe when you’re outside. And there are gnats and mosquitoes. Sounds great right?

Knitting at the library during a presentation

Instead I stay inside and I will watch a movie or binge watch a TV series. And I find other places out in the “wild” where I can knit. The local coffee bar, my library branch, at the doctor’s or vet’s offices, at a restaurant. So even if you don’t have air conditioning, there are places you can go to get a little knitting done.

Knitting at a restaurants while waiting for our orders.

Why? Because my good friend Ellen once told me her secret to high knitting production and this is it: Knit a little bit every day. Knit for 10 minutes. Knit while you’re in line at the MVA. Knit during a staff meeting. If you knit a little every day, you will be finished with your sock, hat or sweater rather soon. If your project just sits in your knitting bag or your yarn bowl, it isn’t getting finished.

So in the past few weeks, I’ve been out knitting in public, mostly at the vet office because Chester is having chemotherapy.  I have had some great conversations with people because I had my knitting out.  People are curious and people have questions or reminiscences about their grammy or aunty.  I know that sometimes this can be annoying….I just want to knit in peace. It also brings up a feeling of community.  That has been a bright ray in the midst of an otherwise dreadful day.

Knitting at the vet office

So my advice to you is to go out and knit in public, even if it isn’t the official knit in public day. You will get make more progress on your projects and maybe you’ll have a good conversation with someone new.  Let me know where you are knitting and how it’s going!

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Color 101- Color Harmonies Part 3

Triads, Tetrads and Sequences

In previous videos I have taught about color principles and color harmonies We are down to the last 3. Today we will be talking about Triads, Tetrads and Sequences. If you would like to watch this video, click here.

Triads are simple 3 colors that are equidistant on the color wheel. We’ve already talked about these as Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colors. They are the 3 colors that are equidistant. So red, yellow and Blue are one combination and orange, green and purple is another one and them you have red-orange, yellow-green and Blue-violet and finally yellow-orange, red-violet and blue-green. This color harmony is highly excitable. And so the values that you use are going to be very important.

Next is Tetrads: 4 colors that are equidistant on the color wheel. Examples of this harmony are orange-green-red-blue. They are basically 2 sets of complementary colors. Another example would be purple-yellow-red and green. To use the tertriary colors you would use yellow-orange, yellow-green, red-violet, blue violet. Again these colors can fight each other because they are complements. So be careful with them.

And the last color harmony I’ll be talking about is color progressions or sequences. This is one of my new favorite color harmonies to dye. This is when you take 2 colors and combine them in varying amounts. Here is a gradient set. I started with yellow and blue. and then I combined these to make the other 3 colors. Thees are like analogous colors because they are all related. This is a very pleasing and eye relaxing when used in shawls or other garments. I have 3 sets of Sequences on the website for sale and the Raddiant pattern to make a great shawl with them.  

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Color 101-Color Harmonies Part 2

Complementary Color and Splits

This is the 3rd in the series about color theory and how to use this knowledge to pick colors and patterns for your knitting or crochet. If you want to watch the video, click here.

Last time we talked about the soothing color harmonies of monochromatic and analogous color harmony. Today we will be getting more “exciting”. Our eyes and brains are always looking for excitement. The 2 color harmonies we are talking about are complementary colors and split complementaries.

Complementary colors are those that are directly across from each other on the colorwheel. So red and green are complements as are orange/blue and purple/yellow. These are the most exciting to our eyes. When they are right next to each other they make our eyes almost vibrate. So these are almost “dangerous” together. When using this harmony, there are a few guidelines that I think will help you make a more harmonious interaction. First if you are going to make stripes, your stripes should be several rows wide. If you change your color every 1 or 2 rows, the colors will actually start to mix and your sock or shawl will take on a gray tone. This is because when we mix the two complementaries together they do make a neutral gray or brown color. So wider stripes will be better. You also need to pay attention to the values of the complementary yarns you are using.

Remember when we talked about Value? If you pick a very high value yellow and a very low level purple, you will be multiplying the excitement. If you pick a red and green that are really close in value, you will be multiplying the chances of getting a grayed out shawl or sweater.

I would also suggest that you swatch! I know this is a dirty word, but do it anyway. A few minutes of swatching the actual stitch and row pattern, will save you from spending time on a pair of socks or shawl that you absolutely hate.

Let’s move on to color harmony #2 for today. This is Split Complementary. This harmony moves away from the extreme of complementary and can be more pleasing and more soothing than a complementary color scheme. So what is it? To find the split complementary, you look at the color on either side of the complementary color.

Here are some examples: Yellow and purple are complements. So the split complementary would be purple and yellow-green or yellow-orange. Think of this as purple with chartreuse/lime green or purple and cheddar. These colors were wildly popular in quilting a few years back.

The other side of that would be yellow with red-violet or yellow with blue-violet. In nature you would see these colors in pansies and irises. We love those right?

For the red-green complement, you would have red and teal or red and charteuse. That sounds horrible right? But how about green with red-violet and green with red-orange.

And finally the orange-blue complement, you would have orange with teal or orange with blue-violet. Or Blue with red-orange and blue with red-violet.

Here are some patterns that work well with complementary or split complementary colorways. My new shawl is complete, but the pattern is not. As soon as it is available, I’ll let you all know.  The Olilia  shawl is really nice with complementary colors. You can find it on Ravelry.

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Fixing Mistakes

Fixing Mistakes

Have you ever realized just how hard it is to proofread your own work? When I was teaching, I would suggest that the kids read their work backwards, word by word. Because we already know what it is we wanted to say, but did we really say it? That’s the tricky part. Now that I’m designing shawls and other knitwear, I think that I’ve gone over it all with a fine tooth comb, but every once in a while I write the wrong symbol. (Have you noticed how knitting patterns really are written in a different language?) So with my new shawl there is typo that will change the look of the shawl. At the end of each row I wrote “k2, kfb”. That’s wrong, because I had a yarn over increase, not that Kfb increase. So if you have the Raddiant Shawl pattern, please make that change on your pattern. 


At Rhinebeck, I ran into Lar Rains. He is the designer of the Exponential Shawl. He also had a pretty significant omission in this pattern. I have the errata for anyone who has bought this pattern. Unfortunately, I don’t know who you are. So please email me at goat…… and I’ll send you the fix for this kit.

Photo by Gale Zucker
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Color 101- Color Harmonies and a Look at Value

I’ve just started a You Tube Channel, did you know that? Here is the link to my channel.

Last week I posted a video about color value and began to talk about color harmonies.  Here is the video. If you would rather read about this topic here it is:

Hi everyone, Today is the second in our series about color theory and how to use it in your fiber work. I realized that I didn’t talk about value in the last video. Value is one of the hardest principles to see and make sense of. Basically value is how much light is reflected from your work. It is measured by a gray scale. This 10 step scale was made famous by the photographer Ansel Adams. His work is so rich because he was deliberate about offering many different values in one photograph. It is exciting and interesting to our eyes and brains. And colors naturally live along the value scale. For instance you can’t have a high value yellow. It will always be at the light end of the scale. And alternatively, purple will always at the bottom or high end of the scale. There are 2 easy ways to “see” value. One way is to look through squinty eyes. This reduces our ability to see the color and leaves us with a more black and white view. The other way is to look through a red lens, like this. The lens adds red to all the colors you are looking at and again makes them more monochrome and you are able to “see” the differrence in value. In our work, value differences can add interest to your fabric. Just as we have a natural affinity for certain colors, we also have a natural affinity for value schemes. Some people really prefer high contrast and other prefer low contrast. So I urge you to look at your wardrobe and even the artwork on your walls and see what the values in your life say about you.

The last principle I want you tell you about is tints, tones, and shades. Tints are a color with white added. In the dyeing world these look like pastels. Tones are a color with gray added. And Shades are a color with black added. These will give you different values in your work.

Alright it’s time to move to color harmony. What do I mean by that? We will be looking at how hues work together. Some colors like each other and some really do not get along with others very well. Today’s harmonies are ones that are quite easy and accessible for all crafters. They are the most relaxing and calming of the harmonies.

The first harmony we are going to look at is MONOCHROMATIC colors. This is a color scheme that uses one hue but changes the value. Many gradient sets are monochromatic. They are all dyed with the same dye, but the saturation is different in each skein from tint, through tone and then shade of the color. This harmony is very relaxing on the eye. There isn’t anything jarring to look at. It is usually a gentle progression through the fabric. There are many shawls that work well with monochromatic colors. Olilia, botanical garden, etc.

The second harmony today is the ANALOGOUS colors. These are colors that lie next to each other on the color wheel. Here is another color wheel that was made for painters, really. But it show us the analogous colors. I have 2 favorite schemes here. I love green, blue, purple. And I also love red, red-orange and orange. This harmony can be relaxing to look at, but it also have more visual excitement for your brain. You will find gradient sets made with analogous colors in the marketplace. I have Tequila Sunset that works through combos of yellow and cherry to make some lovely corals, salmons and oranges to work with. And what kind of shawls can you use here? Raddiant, Maryland My Maryland, Joker and Thief.

So until next time: Happy Making!

Resources:

The Colorwheel I love:

 

Color Evaluator to use for Value:

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Color 101

This week I started a YouTube series about color.  The intent is to help you to find your love and joy of your yarn collection again. I want to help you pair yarn and patterns. So today’s session is for us to get on the same page about color. Some of this you may remember from elementary school art class. But hopefully there are a few revelations.  Click here to watch the video. Below is the transcription.

 

 Today we are going to start to talk about color. When I’m at fiber festivals I hear people saying all the time, I don’t know what color to choose. Or I find that I pick the same color all the time. Does that sum up your experience too? My hope is that by watching these videos on color, you will begin to have the confidence to choose colors for yourself. And to choose harmonious colors. And to break out of your color rut. But let’s start at having a shared vocabulary.

Color is more than a 5 letter word! It embodies hue and value and saturation and tone, shade and tint. There are so many nuances in the word color. And so let’s start at the beginning. First of all here is the color wheel that I really like. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes.

Hue is what we are taking about when we say that yarn is blue or purple or red. It has a specific vibration in the light spectrum. And what I know is that there is a big variation in the colors people CAN see. Scientists believe that the Impressionist painters saw color in a much more vibrant way and faithfully painted what they saw. I see this phenomenon a lot when people describe blue. What I see as navy, others see as purple. The geeky explanation is that individuals have different concentrations of the eye cells that detect color. And the hues in that area slide into each other blue, blue violet, violet, red violet. They are much closer in hue than the other side of the color wheel.

You probably remember learning about primary colors in elementary school. So I’ll just mention these quickly. Primary colors are red, yellow and blue. They are colors that can not be made from other colors. Secondary colors are made by mixing 2 of the primarys: red and yellow are orange, red and blue are violet and yellow and blue are green. And then there are the tertiary colors. These are my personal favorite. These are made by adding more of one primary to the secondary. So you have colors like red-orange commonly called coral or salmon. You have a blue green which could be teal or aqua.

When classifying colors, people use the words Warm colors and Cool colors. The easiest way to remember these are that the warm colors are the colors of the Sun and the cool colors are the colors of the sea. Warm colors tend to be more vibrant. They tend to excite or agitate us more than the cool colors which are those that relax us. It’s my experience that most yarn that people collect are those on the cool side of the colorwheel. Look at your collection and let me know if that is true for you. You can comment on the video below.

Saturation and Value are very closely related. Saturation is how much of the color is in the yarn. You can have a light yellow or a vibrant yellow. Both being clear hue but one having more of the color than the other. There are times that you want that vibrant color to jump out of your work and other times you would want to have a more subtle yellow to play off the other colors in your yarn.

So that is the foundation of color that we will be using in the next few videos. Before I sign off today, I want to show you a couple of resources that I have used to develop my sense of color. 

Color wheel

The Munsell Student Color Set

So until next time, Happy Knitting!!

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Finding Your Joy!

Joy is not the same as happiness. Joy is in the small moments. It is in the smell of cinnamon almonds and kettle corn. It is in the turning of the fall leaves.  It is in the light playing off the Potomac as you are crossing over it.  It is in the feel of a great yarn like our Zephyrette. It is in the feeling you get when you start a new project OR when you finish one. It is in the sound of the trick-or-treaters at your door, the cute ones, not the teenagers (LOL). It is a feeling of connection with other people and with nature. It is the feeling that all is right in your world, right now.

 
Last week, I wrote about overcoming overwhelm at these shows.  I realized just recently, that I need to regain my joy at fiber shows. And I am writing today because I have come to understand that maybe you need to find that joy as well.  And while I don’t know if I have all the answers for finding joy instead of overwhelm, I think this is a start. 
 
Before I was a vendor, I would go to these shows as a buyer and a looky-loo and a participant. And it is true that there are a lot of people and a lot of activities and a lot of things to buy. There are things to eat and drink and there are animals and fleeces, too.  There is a lot. 

 
Now that I am a seller at these shows, my perspective is a little different.  There is all of that still and there is my color work that I have up on my wall for you to look at and hopefully to take home with you.  But, I think today I will peel back the curtain and let you know that I have felt myself losing the joy at shows. You know that’s hard to write, because I love what I do. I love to make beautiful color combinations. I love packing up the yarn and roving and putting it up on the grid wall. I love to have you look at what I’ve been making for you. But I feel my joy starts to dissipate as I respond to people telling me that they are overwhelmed or that they just got here and have to look around first or that they are on a fiber diet. I start to take on those feelings too. 
 
My message to you today is this: when you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed at a show, stop and take a moment.  Maybe go outside and sit for a minute. Maybe go into that empty booth instead of the one with the line and take a moment to appreciate the work that artist has done. Even if it isn’t anything you want or need, that person has brought it there for you to admire.

I’m asking you to do something not only for me but for all the other artists at the show. Just tell us something good. Tell us that you love our colors. Tell us that you appreciate what we are doing. Tell us that you love that shawl. That kind of interaction will build us up.
 
And I promise to you that I will do the same. I will complement your sweater or shawl. I will appreciate the colors you put together. Together we can spread that joy throughout the show. We, artists, don’t expect you to buy something at everyone’s booth. Of course, I hope you will find something that you love in my booth. But don’t make an excuse, just say thank you.

And what about that family that is walking too slowly or that person who just stopped dead in her tracks? Spread the joy with them too. Complement them, don’t get angry. It’s supposed to be a fun day not a stressful one. Say a kind word to that person or admire their hat or sweater or shawl that they have made.  Feel that connection to the artists, fiber farmers and creatives who are out for a day of joy at the fiber festival. And of course, come by our booth and say Hi! It will be one of the joys in my day!

 Rhinebeck is in just a few days on October 21 and 22. There’s nothing like Rhinebeck and we can’t wait to be back again this year. We are in Building A. The weather is usually fantastic! Everyone is out in their special Rhinebeck sweaters. The food is good and diverse.  If you haven’t gone, you really need to put this festival on your bucket list, because it is just that good.  

New shawl kit includes 5 mini skeins and pattern $35 This the Summer Berry Gradient Set

And if you can’t get to any of these festivals and you see something here that you want to add to your collection, just send me a message and let me know. I can send you a skein or two.  I won’t be putting these skeins up on the website until after these shows.