Every weekend I face the same dilemma – what colourway will I dye today?
The trouble is that some colours I like but won’t wear and some I’m not keen on, but actually in combination they look great. Also, what if I look at the colours from my skewed perspective of someone who is very shy and doesn’t like to stand out in the crowd, but I should try something new?
One way I searched for colourways was to use the Adobe colour wheel and import my landscape images. This produced some interesting results I look at every time it’s dyeing time. But colours are subjective – if I dye for myself, I would mostly stick to earthy tones of greys and browns with some touches of muted greens and purples. But I have to remind myself that is not the case, that I dye for others.
There were many occasions when I ventured out of my comfort zone and dyed a braid of wool in shades I did not particularly liked. The said braid stayed on my shelf for nearly half a year before I decided to spin it. As I started to ply, the intermingling of colours came out beautifully and I was amazed at how wrong I was. This skein of yarn became one of my favourites and it got sold today.
So what should I take from this? Probably to keep my mind open, not let my own colour preference pollute my choices. Be brave and enjoy the process. Experiment and see the results. And don’t be discouraged, as the colours always change from the dyed braid to spun yarn to a knitted garment – one will never know till it’s all done.
I better go back to dye some more wool.
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