Nicolette

I love how intricate the beautiful fair isle motifs look and yet I’m only ever knitting with 2 colours in a row. I think the darker colours really stand out against the paler background. This is shown wonderfully well in the photograph that I used to name the Moodboard – The Colours of Scotland.

I also noticed that a repeating motif on these moodboards was the agapanthus flower in several different colours. When I was a child my mum used to buy me colouring books which I coloured in and would create kaleidoscopic patterns. I always remember these when I am creating patterns on squared paper. I think it is why I enjoy playing with fair isle motifs so much.

It amazes me how different the swatches and patterns can look using the same set of pale and dark colours. In the Moodboard – A Little Breathing Space I noticed that the pale blue looked quite purple beside the camel and turquoise colours. I was thinking about this when I was choosing the images that I wanted to work from.

In the Moodboard – Discover Life’s Pleasures I was interested to see how the swatches would look if they only used the paler coloured Alpaca 4ply yarns. In the larger swatch I wanted see the colours in graded stripes and then used the lightest colour for knitting the fair isle motif.

The Moodboard – Dream Catching inspired the swatch that became the pair of Fair Isle Alpaca Fingerless Mittens that were gifted to my sister. I always find that the more I play with and experiment with a set of colours the more ideas that I get for new swatches.

The Fair Isle Alpaca Fingerless Mitts were really beautiful when they were finished. I love this combination of colours.

With this Moodboard – Now Don’t Miss Out, I was interested in the quality of light juxtaposed against the darker colours. With the dark berries I loved how the light made them look bluer. I also loved the exploding star shapes in the thistle and the white agapanthus flowers. I explored both of these elements in these knitted swatches.

This week is all about my moodboards. These ones all used the same colours of Artesano 4ply Alpaca. I did this series of moodboards some time ago. The first Moodboard – Iconic Treasures shows the 5 pale colours and 5 dark colours of 4ply Alpaca that I used for all the samples knitted for these moodboards…

I collect images from magazines that inspire me. Whether it is because of the beautiful details such as the intricate cutout paper sculptures in the jewellery advert. The vibrant colours of the ocean in the seascape photograph. Or the subtle pastel colours in the photograph of the beach huts and the pebble beach.

I use paint colour strips from the hardware store as I find them great for picking out the colours I want to use.