Hello and welcome to a little post where I share my excitement of finally getting back into sock knitting in earnest. A while ago I wrote a post where I was making my way through the 52 Weeks of Socks | Week 01: Intersections. It was fun, but after that I really lost my sock knitting desire. At least with more “complicated” patterns. This past month I ended up looking through my pattern library…

It’s been a busy few weeks here with weekends away, deadlines and new modules to contend with. However, I’ve been sneaking in a bit of knitting both at Straight Stitching and when I’m out and about, and I’m loving a couple of quick gratification projects I’ve worked on recently. Quick knits are generally perfect for on-the-go knitting too.

I love knitting socks; it’s one of the reasons I learnt…

Colour Theory

If you’ve been around here the last two or three weeks, you’ll know I cast on Naloa by Renée Callahan using Kettle Yarn Co. yarns in Electric Aramanth (Beyul) and Dark Media (Westminster). I’ve been knitting away on it quite happily, and this weekend I started knitting the contrast colour onto the edge. I love the knitting. I love the yarn. I love the pattern. But, I was feeling strangely uncomfortable.

I wasn’t entirely sure why, but looking at the project made me feel strange. You can probably guess what the reason was, given the title of this post. I decided to take a photo of the project using the ‘Mono’ filter on my iPhone – this is what Helen recommended to use, to see if the yarns went together in greyscale. What I discovered fair blew me away. Before carrying on, here’s a definition you’ll need to know.

Chroma refers to the purity of a color. A hue with high chroma has no black, white or gray in it. Adding white, black or gray reduces its chroma. It’s similar to saturation but not quite the same. Chroma can be thought of as the brightness of a color in comparison to white.

In design, avoid using hues that have a very similar chroma. Opt instead for hues with chromas that are the same or a few steps away from each other.

– Smashing Magazine online

To test the theory, I gathered a few other striped projects together, in which I really like the way the colours play together. One is my beloved Zigzag Jumper, the other my Saguaro Cowl from a few weeks ago. The tea cosy was sent to me by Alice of The Sequinned Sheep, and the sock is a self-striping Biscotte and Cie yarn. I took photos of all of these projects in full colour, then using the mono filter. I also took a few close-ups, which my handy slideshow will scroll through for you. Do take a look at these before reading on – I’d be interested to know what you think before you read my thoughts.

Can you see how all of the projects except Naloa have a striped effect that looks just as good in monochromatic as in full colour? Side-by-side comparisons will help.

The four projects side by side.

The shawl photos side by side.

And the side-by-side sock photo.

I am fascinated to see this theory in action like this. Will I be ripping Naloa out? No, not likely – but it really says a lot for buying yarn on the Internet (I hadn’t seen Electric Aramanth before it arrived) as well as how to think about your projects before you start them. I suppose this would also work with a fairisle pattern – if the pattern doesn’t show up with a mono filter applied, you know the colours may not be the best.

All of that said, this is all still theory, and relates back to the idea of ‘ugly‘ I was talking about the other day – it’s all about perspective, and if you like it, great.

I hope this has been understandable – if I can clarify anything, please let me know!

Much love,

Corrie xx

The Muse Connection: Volume One

This Sunday saw me attending the Muse Connection: Volume One at Drink, Shop & Do in King’s Cross. This was the inaugural event for The Muse Connection, a collaboration between Kate of A Playful Day, and Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. For more information, check out their websites.

Before you head on to find out what we got up to, please note that tickets for the Muse Connection: Volume Two…

Podcast Episode 10: Maneja

Episode Ten of the Plutonium Muffins podcast was chaos! Hopefully enjoyable chaos, I had just returned from a day at the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show exhibition and was very tired – please excuse me for this. I also had no internet while recording, so there was a bit of apologising for that…but I had fun, and you can too! I update you on my knitting and spinning projects, talk about events,…