Today we're excited to dive into color and bring you new patterns from Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits. Louise has written a new book, Knit Play Colour, that takes a collection of patterns and shows you how you can take an idea and push and pull it into different directions for different effects.
We are always playing with color and mixing up new color combinations, so we love the spirit of Louise's new book.
Featured on the cover is Affinity, which stripes two skeins of fingering weight yarn. Depending on what you choose, the effect can be wild or subtle. Of course we had to have something a little wild - Shiruku, a merino-silk blend, in one of our wildest colorways, Perfectly Wreckless. Louise has paired it with a lovely semi-solid purple from SweetGeorgia but we can also suggest Shiruku in Dusk.
Her "Play" suggestion includes experimenting with multiple textures instead of multiple colors for a totally different effect.
All non-yarn photos copyright Jesse Wild.
Here's Shiruku in Perfectly Wreckless and Dusk together:
Flight of Colour is a shallow triangle scarf, striped in three colors in the original pattern. We love to put three colors together - we do it all the time - and Louise gives great tips for choosing a winning combination. By beginning with a favorite color and adding a dark and a light neutral, you're sure to have both good contrast and a harmonious overall effect.
Louise's "Play" suggestion is for adding lots more colors - incidentally perfect for lots of leftovers or a Polydactyl Set, which is what she created her second sample in. For more ideas on selecting colors, check out Louise's blog post.
And here's the Polydactyl Set in Soul Food:
The book is now available via Louise's site or on Ravelry. If you want to find out a little more about Knit Play Colour, you can join us for the rest of the blog tour. The next stop is Knitted Bliss.
We're also running a little giveaway. To be entered to win a digital download of the book, comment here by the end of the day Friday, October 9th (be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you). What unexpected color combinations do you love? Are you willing to take a chance on color, or would you rather play with textures?
78 comments
I love color. Reds, pinks, purples are always a favorite but I’m branching out and trying new colors and combinations. I’ve had my eye on the polydactyl sets and would love to make an affinity with one of the polydactyl sets.
I’m equal opportunity when it comes to color and texture — I love watching textures develop in semi-solids and solids and I love watching colors come and go. It took me a while to appreciate that not every yarn works with every pattern and vice versa. Orange and yellow to be colors I avoided but again with experience I have learned to love them too.
Love watching the colors play together as I knit. It’s hard to put the knitting aside when the color play is unfolding with each stitch, each row. Lately I’m intrigued by wide bands of different textures Combined with colors.
I really like a saturated red and purple combination! To me, it is really eye-catching. I am not a natural at creative color combinations, but I can play with texture and the perfect yarn type and color.
Color or Texture? BOTH! It depends on the pattern and what strikes my fancy at the time.