I’m basing my version of Simple Stripes by Suvi Simola on this beautiful colour scheme of naturals, pink and sky blue. I photographed this young herring gull when I was on holiday in Shetland in September 2015.
I’ve decided on the lovely range of Drops Nord Uni Colour a lovely 4 ply weight. This is a lovely yarn blend of 45% Alpaca, 30% Polyamide and 25% Wool. This is a handwash sock yarn, so not a yarn I would knit socks out of. I like to be able to machine wash my socks in a wool setting. But I don’t mind handwashing my sweaters.
I chose the yarns that I thought would bring my colour scheme to life. Then I swatched in wide stripes to see what I thought of the colours together.
When I finished this swatch I realised I didn’t like this shade of pink (13 Old Pink). It was too coral in colour rather than the dusky pink I was hoping for. So I ordered some additional colours of yarn. For me, the photographic source material is a jumping-off point for colour inspiration.
When the additional colours arrived in the post, I knit and blocked small separate colour swatches which allowed me to move them around to see how I liked the way the colours were playing with each other. Was there too much contrast? Too little contrast? I added a powder pink as well as blush pink. I added jeans blue as well as the fog mix. I removed the dark grey mix and changed it for the grey mix which was a bit lighter in tone.
The colours from left to right: 08 Fog Mix, 05 Grey Mix, 20 Blush Mix, 07 Light Beige Mix, 04 Light Grey Mix, 16 Jeans Blue, 12 Powder Pink, and 03 Pearl Grey Mix.
I’m happy with this combination of colours. I feel they work well together and I know that I would love to wear a striped jumper in these colours.
Finally, I swatched in the round to make sure I could obtain the required tension. I knit the swatch and measured the tension before I washed it. It wasn’t correct. Then I washed the swatch and allowed it to dry naturally (the way I would allow my finished sweater to dry). When it was fully dry I measured the tension and it was spot on using 3.75 mm circular needles.
So now I’m ready to cast on the Simple Stripes sweater and looking forward to making it.
So interesting to hear about your thoughts and your process of choosing the colours! I always find it hard to make up my mind if I really like a colour combination.
I really love choosing colours. So much fun…
Lovely colours. I love the little gull. It’s amazing the colours you can see in the feathers. X
It is amazing when you look closely at the feathers, isn’t it. I’m always fascinated by the iridescent colours on the feathers of pigeons and magpies too.