Use a colour wheel to help your yarn choices

One look at our needle and hook collections will tell you the the KnitPro team loves colour. 
 

Zings, Trendz and Waves all add colour to your crafting kit

So it is not surprising that we love stripes, granny square, Fair Isle and anywhere else we can combine colours in yarn. And judging by the pictures you post on our social media channels so do you.

What can be hard sometimes is deciding what colours to use together. A useful tool, we sometimes turn to, is a colour wheel like the one pictured below.

The standard wheel you usually see has 12 segments as shown here. The primary colours, yellow, red and blue are shown at 12, 4 and 8 o’clock and secondary colours, orange, purple and green,  are at 2, 6 and 10 0’clock. Secondary colours are created by mixing two primary colours, for example red and yellow give orange, so they sit half way between the primary colours on the wheel.

The other colours here are known as tertiary colours and are made by mixing a primary and a secondary colour. So for example at 5 o’clock the red and purple are mixed to give a red-violet or shade. You could go on adding segments by mixing each colour with the one next to it to create a larger range of shades but twelve is a good place to start.

Using colours together

Among the ways to match colours are: 

• Similar shades: Choose yarns that sit in the same quarter of wheel such as reds and oranges – these are known as analogous colours.

•  Complimentary colours: These are colours that sit opposite each other on the wheel and provide good contrasts– yellow and purple, green and red etc. If you are looking for a subtler contrast, go for the colour to the immediate left of right of the one opposite.
•  Colour groups: For fair isle and crochet squares we are often looking for 3 or four colours to combine. Pick your colours evenly round the wheel for example  at 1, 5 and 9 o’clock or 1, 4, 7 and 10 o’clock.

This is known as colour theory, one of the easiest ways of using it with yarn – especially from your stash – is to arrange your skeins and balls in a circle in the correct positions for the colour wheel. This will really help you see what will work together – and what crucial shade you need to buy for your perfect colour combination.

Kids crafting for summer

It may be a lovely summer so far but there will always be wet days or those when the kids are just bored and looking for something to entertain them. What better time to get them started on some crafting and use up your left over yarn with some free patterns and tutorials?

Simple knitting

One of the problems with teaching children to knit is that if you start with a teddy’s scarf or similar it can take a long time to get results. But there are fun projects you can achieve with just a few rows such as the finger monster from UK Hand Knitting which only needs oddments of yarn and some bits and pieces to decorate it. Plus it doesn’t matter if the finished creature has holes or is uneven, it is a monster after all.   

Finger knitting

If picking up the needles doesn’t appeal, try finger knitting which is a great way of getting kids interested in yarn crafting and delivers quick results. It requires no equipment beyond a few balls of leftover yarn. You get great effects using two balls together and children love deciding on the colour combinations. To keep interest going. have finger knitting races to see who can make a strip to stretch across a room first. You can find video instructions on finger knitting here.

 

Braiding

From friendship bracelets to kumihimo, braiding left over yarn is an easy option to get started with and you can make a simple braiding disc from cardboard – click for video instructions from Kidspiration.

Braiding like this is very portable and so can be useful for dull moments when travelling.

Pompoms

Thanks to the invention of pompom makers you don’t necessarily need to cut up you cornflake packets for pompom rings, but the attraction of winding wool to create these fluffy balls continues. Of course the risk is you then end up with a stack of them gathering dust. To avoid this, plan to string the pompoms together to create a garland to decorate a bedroom or better yet make a pompom rug as shown here by the Make and Do Crew.

Do share your kids’ crafting tips with us.

Time for a Fair Isle project

When it comes to knitting techniques, fair isle is a particular favourite with the KnitPro team and we are always excited to learn more about it. So we jumped at the chance to look at a new book featuring the history of Shetland knitting, the home of the technique, and to attend an event where we could get up close with the garments featured. 

The Vintage ShetlandProject by Susan Crawford is more than a pattern book, although there are some great patterns in there. Over the past few years Susan has spent time at the Shetland Museum’s textile archive researching the techniques and patterns of traditional Shetland knitting. The result is a stunning book containing a series of essays on a range of topics to do with the history of knitting in Shetland, the development and recording of patterns and how knitting styles changed over times. 

These are followed by a collection modern patterns derived from some of the garments and accessories held in the museum.

For anyone with a love of colourwork there are some interesting and indeed challenging patterns, but that said they are not outside the reach of any knitter willing to take things one step at a time.

Each pattern comes with a lot of information about the sizing and how each garment in constructed and it is important to read through these before starting your garment, especially the sizing because these patterns have been developed from actual vintage pieces they do not necessarily come in standard sizes.

 As is traditional in fair isle many of the patterns are worked in the round with steeks- sections of knitting designed to be cut to allow buttonbands and sleeves to be added. This has the advantage of allowing you to work the colour pattern in the round which for most people is easier and creates a more even tension. 

Seeing the pieces close up, we were able to look at the wrongside of the garments as well and see how neat the “floats”, the strands of yarn not in use on the reverse of the pattern are. They form a design all their own as you can glimpse in some of the images here. One common mistake people new to stranded colourwork like fair isle make is to catch the yarn not in use every couple of stitches. In fact you can let it run behind the work for seven or even nine stitches, by which time in the majority of traditional patterns it is back in use.

This is a book that knitters can return to time after time for inspiration and to create classic garments with their own colour twist. A true investment for anyone who loves colourwork on their needles.

Our top tip for fair isle knitting: 

Learn both English and continental knitting techniques so you can work with one colour in each hand. This evens out your tension and reduces the chance of yarns tangling.

Yarn substitution

If, like us, you spend many happy hours browsing the patterns on Ravelry, the chances are you will have found a design you love the look of that uses a yarn you can’t get hold of. Or you might be lucky enough to have a whole garment’s worth of yarn in your stash looking for a pattern to bring it alive.  If you have never adapted a pattern for a different yarn it might be quite a daunting prospect, but we would like to reassure you that it is quite easy if you follow our tips.

Fibre content

It is always best to try to find a yarn with a similar fibre content.  If the pattern calls for wool and you want to use cotton, the drape and handle will be very different, and you might be disappointed.  However, if it stipulates wool and you have a wool-effect acrylic yarn in your stash it will probably work out fine.

Tension

It is so important to check that you can achieve the same tension with your chosen yarn.  Using the needle size and tension given, knit or crochet a square and see if you can match the gauge in the pattern.  If the square is far too big, your yarn is too thick; way too small and your yarn is too thin.  If your tension square is just a little out, you can adjust this by changing the size of your needle or hook.

Yarn quantities

You will need to work out how much of your chosen yarn you are going to need.  The original pattern will give you the number of balls the design requires in your size.  It may also tell you how many yarns or meters there are in the ball or hank.  If not, you can usually find this information on Ravelry.

Now you need to calculate the total length of yarn needed.  Let’s imagine our pattern takes 5 balls, each with 120 metres.

5 multiplied by 120 = 600 metres in total.

Now let’s say your chosen yarn has only 100 metres in each ball.

600 metres divided by 100 = 6 balls needed in your chosen yarn.

If you are worried you might run out, it’s probably worth adding an extra ball, just in case.

So now you can choose a pattern to match your yarn with confidence.