Knitting instructions: COLOUR COMBINATIONS
January 31, 2008

By Sally Melville


Knitting instructions


I have been sitting on my hands through all this talk about colour (for no particular good reason). Bnd when I found myself awake at 5:30 thinking about replies, I knew it was time to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

So, I apologize in advance for the length of this, but here goes.


COLOUR COMBINATIONS


I agree with the possible gender connections being made and with the idea that if you like and wear some colours well you are more likely to work with them well. (I work with and write about colour so consider myself pretty competent. But I'm a hard-core "autumn" and cannot get around my aversion to blue.)

But there's another factor at work here that takes it out of the personal and the gender.

Our eye is attracted to lighter, brighter, clearer, and warmer colours. Yellow and white are the most "attractive," in this sense. (Interesting that Kaffe Fasset is reported to have said that he doesn't like to work with either. Yellow, however, does appear in his work; white rarely does.)

So, light, bright, warm colours attract a lot of our attention, and we may, therefore, find it difficult to put them together. They are so active and demanding that they almost seem to make our eyes vibrate.

It's easier to look at and work with a collection of cooler colours; they are much less individually demanding.

COLOUR AND DEPRESSION (knitting instructions)

This part was inspiried by someone's talk about looking awful when in mourning and in black. It's personal stuff but may speak to others out there. It certainly was a revelation to me!

My husband died 2 years ago next week. Since then I have bought clothes that were only black, brown, and dark green. Anytime I put on something older and brighter, I couldn't stand to look in the mirror.

I didn't think much about it, except that something was also happening with my knitting.
I am a part-time, professional knitter/designer. But I found myself having difficulties filling commissions for knitted work. My knitting output for 18 months was a measly 6 garments!!


(As compared to my usual 2/month.) AND half of those 6 garments were from patterns! (I write patterns and didn't knitted from one for about 16 years.)

One of the commissions was a personalized mohair coat for an artist. Took forever, with lots of ripping. I talked to her in the midst of it and said that I just couldn't trust my ability to see colour anymore.

She informed me that, yes, this happens when we are sad. Not only does our creativity shut down, but we have difficulty seeing colours. She told me about a painter/mother whose daughter was brutally murdered and who now couldn't paint because all she saw was black, white, and gray.

I wasn't this bad: I was seeing colours, but bright ones were offensive, or I would put too many bright ones together and know it wasn't working but couldn't see why.

(The good news is that she helped with the colours for the coat. It's done, and she's thrilled! She wears it all over the world to openings of her work!)

DESIGNING FOR VK

In the midst of all this (last summer) I designed a piece for this spring's VK. It's a veggie cardigan thing. I DESIGNED it (not surprisingly) in a navy/indigo and medium brown background with medium colours for the veggies. They changed the colours to brights on a background of red and white! I could hardly look at it all the time I was making it and would NEVER be able to wear it.

Maybe this can give some of you a giggle when you see the next issue!

The good news is that I am now seeing colour fine and working prolifically!

Knitting instructions


Diets that work

Posted by Alice-love-knitting at 1:00 PM | 0 comments
Knitting Instructions
By: Feilong Hua

If you are a beginning knitter or an experienced one, there are more resources available to you than ever before in its history. You will be able to interact with other people who share your interests. It's a wonderful way to exchange patterns and information, as well as learning where to find that obscure wool you've been seeking.

For the beginner knitter it is important that they start out with a simple knitting pattern that is going to be easy enough for them to start to learn the basic knitting stitches which are the backbone of most other knitting stitches. There are many books that can be purchased both on the Internet, at a local bookstore, or a knitting store that will give the beginner a good place to start and useful knitting instructions. Once the beginner knitter gains confidence with the basic knit and pearl stitches they will want to move on to a more complex pattern, increasing the complexity of their projects with every item that they complete.

The experienced knitter's challenge is to find the right patterns and the right wool to go with it. The Internet offers patterns for the experienced knitter, as well as your local knitting store. In fact, knitting stores may the best place for most knitters to find patterns. The right wool is just as important so that the look and feel of the finished product is perfect -- not too loose or too tight.

The level of complexity and variety of patterns increases with experience levels. Select the right wool and knitting needles for the pattern, and check that the instructions are easy to read. The Internet offers a variety of different kinds of wool. The endless selection is half the fun -- planning a new knitting project with the right wool in the right color according to knitting instructions. An experienced knitter may want to find knitting patterns with intarsia -- knitting in different colors blocks, each with their own bobbin of color. Intarsia is a creative and challenging way to create knitted garments that are multicolored.

A variety of knitting needles and other knitting tools are necessary for experienced knitter, as well as other knitting tools such as bobbins, stitch holders, and stitch markers.

The more projects the beginning knitter takes on the more needles and scrap yarn they will add to their assortments. Scrap yarn is great for knitting scarves when the mood suits and time allows. No matter what your level of expertise, you will find tons of information both on and offline. You will easily stay busy for many years.

Knitting instructions


Diets that work

Posted by Alice-love-knitting at 6:56 AM | 0 comments
How To Master Knitting Instructions The Easy Way
January 30, 2008
By Louise Nova

I wanted to set out some basic knitting instructions as a refresher so here it is. All knitting instructions use basically two stitches, the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Once you know these two knitting essentials you will be able to follow most knitting instructions which are just combinations or variations of these two stitches.

Knitting Instructions for the Knit Stitch

Once you have cast on, hold the knitting needle with the cast on stitches in your left hand. Push the point of the right knitting needle in between the front of the first and second stitches, pointing the knitting needle to the right to feed the point through the first stitch keeping it under the left needle. The knitting yarn should be at the back of the work. Loop the knitting yarn around the right knitting needle from back to front, letting the knitting yarn rest between the needles. Catch the knitting yarn on the end on the right knitting needle and pull it through the first stitch to the front of the work. Slip the old stitch off the left needle. The new stitch is now on the right needle. Now you are getting the hang of the knitting instructions. It is a good idea to keep the knitting yarn draped over the right forefinger, this keeps it to the back of the work too. Repeat this process until all stitches are on the right knitting needle. Now count the stitches, if they are all there, turn the right knitting needle around and put it in the left hand. This is the first row from your knitting instructions. The knitting yarn will look like it is at the front and you will now take it to the back and start the second row of transferring stitches to the empty right needle.

Knitting Instructions for the Purl Stitch

The Purl stitch will also be in any knitting instructions. Start with the knitting needle with the cast on stitches in your left hand. Your knitting yarn will be hanging in front. Push point of right knitting needle into the front of the first stitch from right to left. Wrap the knitting yarn around the tip of the right knitting needle, crossing over the two needles and hanging once again in front. Slide the right knitting needle down and back taking the new loop of knitting yarn from front to back, through the old stitch. Slip the old stitch off the left knitting needle. If you have followed the knitting instructions you now have a stitch in purl on the right knitting needle and the yarn is hanging, once again, in the front. Repeat this process until all stitches are on the right knitting needle. Now count the stitches to make sure you haven't dropped any and turn the work around putting the knitting needle with the stitches on in your left hand to start the next row.

I hope you could follow my basic knitting instructions. I have a lot more information about knitting on my Knitting Instructions blog so please join me there to learn more.


Diets that work

Posted by Alice-love-knitting at 2:48 PM | 0 comments