Okay, I gave you plenty of time to go through your stash and organize it by weight. Your largest stash will probably be the yarn you love the most, mine is fingering weight. All of your yarn placed in boxes gives you a lot of information about you and your knitting. Worsted weight and bulky may mean you like to knit large quick projects; sock or fingering yarns are for more complex and time-consuming patterns. You may combine different weights of yarn together and create a very scrappy look. You will need to adjust your stitch count when going from heavy weighted yarn to a lightweight yarn, but it can be done. Swatching is the answer to a lot of questions you may have, so don’t be afraid to take the time to do several swatches.
Let’s Talk Color
Now I am a novice student of color; I don’t feel like I can put anything together. I fear the color wheel and all of its complexities, which means I need to learn more about, knowledge is after power. Now that we have the internet, learning is at our very fingertips. So off I went to find out what I could about all things color and it really was amazing.
Using just a basic color wheel we can see which colors work best together, reds & blues, purple and green and so forth. You can find all kinds of info on color theory and I suggest you take some time and read up on it. Over on Yarn Cult’s blog, Jennifer Daniels-Ballard has a couple of well-written post on color that I found very informative. Heres a link to the first blog post, click here.
Color Values
On her second post about color, she talks about value, I found this so fascinating. I went around the shop and took pictures to see the value a color has compared to its compatriots. It was cool and because of our phones, you can do this at home. Place yarn into groups that you think would work as a project. Take 2 color pictures and then turn one of them black and white and take a look at your yarn. You are looking at the color value. Some work far better together than others and it helps you choose colors that would work just that much better together. Amazing!
In this first pictures, the colors are very close together and their value compared to each other is weak. But change the colors, such as in the picture below. I kept the original skein (top on the right, below in the middle) and chose more striking colors to go with it. The values came out strong and helped me to choose the better yarns for a shawl.
Yarn company use value in their combo colored cakes. Strong colors that have different values make for great projects. Keep learning about color and how it plays together, you will continue to make the best projects.
Now comes the fun part, patterns for the stash. Next post will be about how to turn your sorted yarn into beautiful things to wear and give away!
Yarnies Unite
Rachael
Creation Station
Catherine & Rachael
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