Episode 27: Color Me Badd

Episode 28: Color Me Badd (32:15)

We talk about our color palettes, how color influences our knitting choices, and why we buy when we buy.

Color Me
We talk about what colors we obsess over and what turns us off, then wonder what color season each of us might be.

Jenny's red post
Molly Ringwald
Gloria
Artfibers Whisper
Betty Edwards Color
Hamburglar
Color Me Beautiful (which Nicole has since found and purchased)
Tulip & my aunt
Tilted Duster
Peruvia in Acquamarina
Ribbon X-back

Badd
We buy. Here's why.

Peruvia
O-Wool
Our recent binge may be related to some of the following:

• Release of new magazines
• Certain LYSOs elicit the desire to buy
• Going to a new LYS
• Feeling virtuous for not buying? Then buy!
• Suckers for a sale
• Nicole deliberates; Jenny is more of an impulsive buyer

Cottage Yarns
Stash in Berkeley
Elann Highland Peruvian Wool
Artyarns Ultramerino (in color UM109)
Jaeger Siena
Prairie Tunic (scroll down)
Dad's cardigan front

Are you making one skein projects? Yes, then enter our contest by taking a photo, posting it to the Stash and Burn Flickr group with the details and the tag "oneskein" and letting us know. Enter often!

Music:
Dig Me Out: Sleater Kinney
Shangri La: Versus
Sharpshooter: The Mary Timony Band

Comments

[Leslie]

another great episode!!! interestingly, i stopped going to an SF LYS (that you guys mention a lot) because i felt an undercurrent of hostility if i didn't buy (even though i often bought there and, more importantly, had referred several friends there who spent mucho dinero there). anyway, thanks for a great show! :)

[tarahsolazy]

Loved this episode! I remember my mom "getting her colors done" back in the 80s. She was a winter, IIRC, lol. I suppose I am, too, I've got the blue undertone that Jenny mentions...I have a oatmeal/tan fixation for sweater yarns, talk about boring

[Courtney Quintana]

I have a knit-a-long going on for the Tilted Duster for anyone who is interested.

www.tilteddusterkal.blogspot.com

[Sally Villarreal]

I love color, in all aspects of my life. I get into trouble because I tend to go too bright and too loud. It looks great on a skein or on the needle, but then I end up with something I don't have the guts to wear. That's why I decided my shocking loud turquoise Joann Angel Hair (best craft store yarn ever) will be a blanket and not a sweater. I think I managed to divert a disaster.

I've been trying to be more open to other colors recently. Since my last Knit2Purl2 order got canceled, I may try again (if it's not too late) for Plymouth Royal Bamboo in the sort of olivey green. It's not the color I gravitate towards, but I think it would look good with my eyes.

Neutrals tend to turn me off, although I can appreciate it when the animal or plant actually comes in that color. I'm getting more turned on to chocolate brown. I definitely more a cool colors person.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who read "Color Me Beautiful" as a kid. I checked it out from the library when I was about 12. I was in this weird phase. However, I think they are way too strict. I think seasons should be more like general guidelines, and you should just go with your gut.

For example, I think I'm a winter, but I think Olive Green would look good on me.

If I remember art class correctly, I think opposite colors are supposed to go well together. I'd love to learn more color theory

I agree with the gauge thing. I am the loosest knitter ever! It will blow your mind. The boogie time in worsted? Size 3. The Knucks in DK? Size 1. It's mind blowing.

I agree with the yarn shop stuff. It's not that you must buy every time, but that you buy sometimes. Also, I frequent 2 different yarn shops, and I try not to mention the other LYS in front of the owners of another. (Or say "Oh, they have that book at Hobby Lobby.") I just know at the minor craft shows I do, I hate it when someone starts telling other customers says "oh, they have scarves like that at Walmart for half the price." I mean, I'm sitting right there.

We just had a discussion at a knitting group about customer service at the LYS. I always ask. I ask everything.

Well, the Sweet Sheep is having a sale. I'm about to make a wish list. Forcing a waiting period helps. (Besides I don't get paid until Friday.)

[Bronwyn]

As to being able to wear different colors... each one has an undertone, like our skin, which influences how flattering it is on me. A purple that has more of a red undertone (and it can be hard tell, but just put a bunch of purples together and you'll see what I mean!) looks awful on me. But a dark, blue-purple looks stunning with my fair skin and dark hair. Yellows that have a green hue look awful too, but a soft, buttery yellow (with a subtle orange hue) look beautiful. Don't think that you just shouldn't wear certain colors... if you aren't sure, take several different shades of the same color, go into the LYS bathroom (with the door open, obviously) and hold each one up to your face. It should be pretty apparent which ones flatter your looks and which ones make you look like you've been sleeping on the street for a week.

[Miss.Muffy]

I can't believe you linked the Hamburgler.

And BTW - The talk about a purple phase, and then attraction yellow? A bunch of fashion magazines have mentioned that purple was THE colour last fall, and yellow was THE colour this spring. Hmm. Subconscious absorption of colour trends?

[JavaNut]

Great to hear you latest episode... and I often debate what the impact of color has on me and whether I like a pattern.

i think Brown is when you have a combination of all primary colors (so orange + blue would be it!).

And love the blue for your tilted duster... I'm still debating on whether that will make it to my queue. But the aqua is a great color and will look quite nice with brown or black. nice choice!

Thanks again for a fun discussion!

[Marce]

Color me GREEN with envy over that colorwheel stash shot. Very nice. You guys get better at this with each episode. I've got a whole new way to consider my yarn (and project) choices now.

[Glenna]

I am so glad for a new podcast - this will get me out running today for sure!

The stash explosion as result of sales has happened to me this past month. While my stash is groaning I have to admit...I love the new project ideas I'll have!

As for colour, I think I go in phases. I realized recently that all 3 WIPs I've got right now are in shades of red. And for a while it was all green. Who knows what'll happen next.

[Glenna]

I am so glad for a new podcast - this will get me out running today for sure!

The stash explosion as result of sales has happened to me this past month. While my stash is groaning I have to admit...I love the new project ideas I'll have!

As for colour, I think I go in phases. I realized recently that all 3 WIPs I've got right now are in shades of red. And for a while it was all green. Who knows what'll happen next.

[Glenna]

I am so glad for a new podcast - this will get me out running today for sure!

The stash explosion as result of sales has happened to me this past month. While my stash is groaning I have to admit...I love the new project ideas I'll have!

As for colour, I think I go in phases. I realized recently that all 3 WIPs I've got right now are in shades of red. And for a while it was all green. Who knows what'll happen next.

[Glenna]

And, erm, I apologize for the triple posted comment...clearly my computer skills are not functioning this morning!

[Laura Todd]

Okay, where the heck did you find O-Wool for $6.00/skein????

[JulieB]

I had my colours "done" in the mid-90s, way after the fad was over. The woman who did them was a little more flexible that the strict Colour Me Beautiful mob and I turned out to be an "Autumn with Spring flow colours", which basically means I get the earthy Autumn tones with some of the less-pale spring ones too. My mother is a winter with summer flow colours, so we don't share clothes any more :)

One thing about finding the right colours for you is that you tend to be attracted to them naturally. If I walk into a shop and all they have is black, white, and red, I walk straight back out again. I do most of my shopping in autumn too - the colours are better! It certianly saves a lot of mistakes hanging in my wardrobe too.

[Abigail]

I was interested to hear your buying styles. I have decided that I am a combo of the two, deliberately impulsive! I do deliberate a bit but I also impulse buy quite regularly. I'm currently trying to not buy and I was feeling virtuous for not having bought any yarn since Aug. 1. In the grand scheme of things, that doesn't sound very impressive!

[Diane D]

So. love. the picture.

Funny story - back in the 90s, I told a colleague that I decided to color code my closet. She said - "oh? you going to put the black next to the black next to the black?" (Function of being tragically hip - and always buying the color that will "go with everything". I just forgot to buy the everything else.)

BTW, I'm now loving brown, too(and lots of colors like robin egg blue). Is it because we are getting older? Fashion trends? I HATED brown as a teenager. Now it seems warm, cozy. Hmmmm.

As I am still new to knitting for myself(I'll catch up!), do you find you *buy* plainer clothes, and let the knits be the splash? Does it not have any effect on your purchased items?

[Elysbeth]

That stash photo is one of the best pieces of art that I have seen in a long time. (Knitter Geek) About the Season thing...for years I was told I was a winter, but I was going through a dainty victorian phase and it made me look very vapid and pale. Then when I was 30+ and getting my make up done for my wedding I was told in NO Uncertain Terms that I am an Autumn. Funny those were always the colours I loved. And they make me look healthy and hale. Hue has alot to do with your season too. I can wear burnt umbre but not sherbet. Funny things colour.

[Josephine]

Another great show. I'm having such a hard time tearing my eyes away from all those beautiful colors!
I was interested to hear your thoughts on the patterns featured in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting. The whole thing left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied. I've expounded at length on my blog:

http://theserialhobbyist.blogspot.com/2007/08/thoughts-on-latest-issue-of-vogue.html

[Jacqueline]

I am really enjoying your show. Especially the comments on adapting patterns so they work for you, and what attracts one to various patterns and what color to use.
As for shopping for yarn - I simply cannot make an impulse buy. I can't even buy yarn on the spot if I have a project in mind! So if the salesperson and the LYS was uppity about my buying or not, I would take my business where I could browse several times while making up my mind undisturbed!

[Stacey]

I repeatedly buy burgundy, red, and orange. But what I really want is green! For some reason, I keep thinking that I have too much green, although I have very little. Just finished a project in two shades of green but that's about it.

[jpt]

One of the reasons I've been enjoying knitting out of my stash is because I have a lot of souvenir yarn, so working it up also reminds me of those trips. Neither of you mentioned this as a reason you buy yarn ... how do you avoid these out-of-town temptations?

Completely agree on the superiority of contemporary browns to 70s browns. Looking back, I think the browns we grew up were ochre-y & meant to be worn with burnt orange, harvest gold, and avocado. Yurg. Today's chocolaty shades look cleaner & less muddy to me.

[Joni Davis]

Re: Color Me Beautiful

I was reminded of the amusing scenes in Michael Moore's movie, "Roger and Me", in which Michael is color-analyzed by a woman in Flint MI. Did you see it? Imagine Moore being draped in variously colored silks. Later in the film he reports that he receives an urgent phone call from her because she has realized that she mis-categorized him.

[Sasha]

A quick note - AWESOME podcast again - thanks so much!! I gobbled it up greedily, listening in the car on my commute to work! Now I want to arrange my stash and wardrobe by colour!! What a fun idea!!
xoxo

[Heather]

Hi! Loved the new episode and I have just submitted 3 pictures for the contest! :) Ooooh, just noticed the next episode is up too...off to listen!

[Margaret]

Yes, the pics in "Color Me Beautiful" were pretty exaggerated even for the time. But it was very freeing to finally find out that it wasn't My Fault that 70's earth tones made me look half dead. ;)

There were a couple of follow-up books that were less restrictive and more helpful for people whose seasons were atypical: "Always in Style with Color Me Beatiful" by Doris Pooser talks about the "flow" colors someone else mentioned, and there was a book written specifically for women of color, who weren't very well served by the original.