The history of color and dyes is fascinating. Before the advent of man-made dyes in the mid-1800s, few people had access to many dyes. The formulas for dyes often were closely guarded secrets that were passed along within families. Only the very wealthy were able to afford the imported dyes with rich, deep colors that are now readily and safely available to even the neophyte dyer in the form of acid dyes. Once synthetic dyes were discovered, however, the playing field leveled, making dyes more readily available and much less costly, and creating the wonderful spectrum of natural-looking colors now available to the general population.
Color also represents different meanings (in some cultures white is used for mourning, while in others it stands for purity), as well as a describer of feelings: we say we’re “seeing red” when we’re angry, for instance, or “feeling blue” to express sadness, or “green with envy” and so on. Color is a strong tool, with many meanings!
With the world of color almost entirely at our choosing, it’s up to us to develop our own color aesthetic — our own color comfort zone. In the same way that some foods are perfect comfort foods, some colors just feel right. If you ask several dyers what inspires their color sense, you’ll get just as many answers. I like to say that my color theory is blue and green. This is simply because I like these colors!
Many years ago, I found some white mohair yarn that I decided to weave into a blanket. It had great luster, and once it was woven and slightly felted in the washing machine, it could be brushed with a steel brush to create a most beautiful, peltlike blanket. My sons named it “The Sloth,” because every time one of them curled up in it, he became slothlike. I wove many more blankets with that white yarn. Longing for color, however, I realized that I could dye the white mohair yarn that was still left.
Selecting all the blues and greens I liked from the Cushing Dye Company color chart, I dyed skeins of yarn on my stovetop, using the immersion dye technique. (For information on this method, see pages 20–21.) I dyed a dozen or so skeins, each a different shade of blue or green, and then wove another mohair blanket. The combination of blues and greens worked wonderfully, because these colors sit next to each other on the color wheel — they “agree” with each other. For your first dye experiments, recognizing your color comfort zone is a great place to start (see Exploring the Color Grid, page 66).
My first dye project, woven into a blanket that became a family favorite and nicknamed “The Sloth.”
Our sense of color is stimulated and honed by the environment we live in — our apartments or houses and the climate and geography of where we choose to be. For instance, I love living where I do, in what’s known as the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, with hills all around me, but I realize that I’m so used to my environment that I’m sometimes blind to its beauty.
You can learn a lot by just stopping and thinking for a moment about the colors that surround you, especially those that you’ve chosen. Your color sense shows in the clothing you select and the colors you paint your walls.
Observe your surroundings with fresh eyes. Notice what you consider beautiful and think about why you do: Is it color? Shape? Light and brightness, warmth and darkness? Take note of the brilliance and seemingly infinite gradations of green in nature — the lighter, brighter shades of new growth compared to mature plants. You could spend the rest of your life blending colors just to capture the greens of grasses and foliage.
Although I’ve just recommended that you identify and use your color comfort zone, once you’ve had a taste of dyeing, it’s a good idea to push yourself to branch out. For instance, sometimes my friend Kathy reminds me to “back away from the green!” It has required discipline on my part to work with colors that aren’t naturally appealing to me — especially when I’m creating colorways for a number of different yarns, where the color palettes have to run the gamut from reds to blacks. Many are colors I do not personally like, but they are needed to give life to a line of yarns.
So try a challenge that will take you out of your comfort zone — outside your box. Think about what color you don’t like. You may have a strong negative response to a particular “ugly” color, but quite possibly trying to use it will make you more creative. Your senses may be heightened. Observe this color in your world and study it. It may even become your new favorite color!
Black Isn’t Always Black
I was never drawn to grays, beiges, or blacks, until I saw the Fiesta yarn company’s La Boheme dyed in neutrals and blacks. I was hooked! This black is like none other, containing deep greens and purples and so many other surprise colors that peek out under the disguise of black. This is far from your flat-iron black!
WHY ARE THINGS DIFFERENT COLORS?
Rocks and soil and all living things, such as leaves, flowers, and your own hair and skin, contain materials known as pigments. Light contains all of the colors. When light hits pigment, the pigment absorbs certain colors and reflects others. The color that you see is the reflected color. When light hits a sweater that you see as purple, for instance, the sweater’s pigments have absorbed all the colors except purple. It’s as if the sweater had many tiny mirrors on its surface that absorbed everything but purple and reflected back the purple.
Taking this analogy a step further gives some perspective on color mixing. When a dyer mixes together a few pigments — say, red and yellow — she creates a new color, in this case, orange. Imagine that as the tiny mirrors reflect both red and yellow, your eyes combine those colors and you see orange. But the pigments also absorb colors, so as the dyer adds more pigments to the mixture, new colors appear and some are absorbed. When you mix all your pigments together, you see something that is brown to black, which indicates the absence of reflected light.
As you begin to explore the world of dyeing, studying a variety of already-dyed yarns is an excellent way to learn about what colors you like and what colors work well together. After all, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Look at all the fibers you can! If possible, open up a skein and study how the colors blend. As you gain experience, however, try to keep in mind that you are a unique individual and you can make your own creative mark on your work. It will take time to develop your own colors and color combinations, but the rewards are great. In the meantime, use the tools available to you to help you gain confidence.
As a child, I was so excited each fall when we were given a new box of crayons. I loved opening the box and looking at the sharp, crisp points of all of the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and black. I felt as though each year would be “The Year” when I could finally express myself through color. As quickly as the crisp points dulled, however, so did my spirits. The waxy nature of the crayons did not mesh with the fluid thought process of mixing colors. When the art teacher brought out the dreaded color wheel, I wondered why my box of crayons had brown and black, yet the color wheel did not. And what I was taught about colors in other subjects only made it worse, as when we studied the way light is separated into colors by a prism. I felt that all the other students in the class knew something I did not, and never would, understand. The problem was that the available tools just didn’t work for me. It wasn’t until I started using fluid dyes that I felt I could be successful using color.
Every book about color shows a color wheel in some shape or form, and this can be very helpful in making decisions about what colors to put together as a palette for a dye project. I’ve developed another tool that I find very useful, however, and color novices may find this tool a great way to build confidence. If you’re already comfortable using the traditional color wheel and have found it helpful, please bear with me and try to leave behind your color “vocabulary” for just a bit. If you can avoid putting labels on what you see, the exercise on the following pages may help you expand your use of color.
Begin your exploration by abandoning all of your biases and memories of working with color. Imagine that you’re a baby looking at the world for the first time. You’re going to explore the grid on the facing page but try not to name the colors that you see. This takes discipline. If your mind says “red,” ignore it! Pretend that “red” is a word from a foreign language that you don’t understand. Scan the grid to discover what parts you like, what attracts your eye. Work your way around the entire grid, even areas you think you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with, and follow these steps. All you need besides the grid are some grains of rice.
A continuous flow of color. If you were to cut out the color grid opposite and roll it into a cylinder, you’d realize that there is no beginning or ending to the blended mix of colors.
1. Select a color box that you like the best. Move your finger to this spot, but remember not to name it. It’s simply the place that attracts your eye, and it will become your jumping off point for choosing colors for a dye project. Place one grain of rice in this box, and from now on, call it your “Main Box.” (Remember, it’s not a color — we’re not using labels!)
2. Place a grain of rice in each of the boxes surrounding your Main Box: a total of nine. The colors of all of these boxes work together because they’re closely related, and so you can confidently use them as the largest proportion in a color combination you’re developing. The down side, however, is that this “safe” combination can appear dull and lifeless. Moderation is safe, but dull, so now you need to move on to step 3.
3. Count up or down (along the same column) to six boxes away from your Main Box, and place a grain of rice where you land. Plan to use the color of this box with the colors of the original nine boxes in a proportion of about 1:9 as a color palette when you’re planning a project. When working with color, it’s good to simplify but don’t dumb it down. Adding this color from outside the “safe” zone will give your project life.
Until now, I’ve avoided naming the boxes, but once you’ve selected a palette independent of color names, it can be helpful to use traditional color vocabulary.
• Primaries. In the color pantry, there are three main ingredients — the “Big Three” building blocks — called the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Every other color is some combination of these three main ingredients. Horizontal white grid lines surround these primary colors (below).
• Secondaries. Those halfway between the primaries are the secondary colors: violet, green, and orange. Each is made by mixing the two primaries on each side of it.
• Tertiaries. The colors in between the primaries and secondaries are known as tertiaries and are the result of combining colors on each side of it. These include blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, and red-violet.
• Monochromes. All of the colors in any one row are monochromatic: they are shades of the same color.
• Analogous colors. The nine colors surrounding any single color on the chart are analogous colors.
• Complementary colors. The sixth box above or below a color is the complement of it.
When you study the dye companies’ color charts, you’ll notice that some colors have an asterisk or are in boldface type. These signals indicate colors the dye company suggests you use as “primary colors.” Unlike light rays, color pigments aren’t available as true pure primaries. Dye manufacturers therefore select the dyes they feel are appropriate to achieve good color mixing. The names of the primary colors from different manufacturers are as varied as their appearance. Depending on the manufacturer, you’ll find Magenta, Fuchsia, Cherry, Bengal Red, True Red, Cardinal, Red #338, and American Beauty, all under the category of primary red, just to name a few. If you’re uncertain when selecting a primary from a particular dealer, simply ask for a suggestion.
All dye companies use a primary color that they sell under their own company label. For example, the Cushing Dye Company has named their “light” primaries Cherry (red), Canary (yellow), and Peacock (blue). Like other companies, Cushing develops its own secret recipes for its color line. The ingredients are secret because they are what sets each company’s colors apart from those of other companies. The art comes in the proportion of the dyes they combine.
To find out if a dye powder is “pure” (in other words, not comprised of a color mixture), sprinkle a small amount of it on a wet white paper towel or cloth. If you see more than one color, this is a mixed color. The advantage of using pre-mixed dyes is that the creative work has already been done for you; the disadvantage is that the mixtures are not always consistent, and the results can vary from batch to batch. Using pre-mixed dyes also cheats you out of the experience of learning to make your own colors.
Imagine taking the color grid, rolling it into a cylinder, and then spreading and flattening it out: you get the traditional color wheel that used to intimidate me! Notice that the colors move from pure red along the color spectrum back to red. For me, this closed circle demonstrates the infinite nature of color.
The key to unlocking the mystery of creating your own custom colors is to experiment with different proportions of the primary colors. By decreasing one increment of a primary color and increasing an increment of the other, you can achieve an endless number of gradations around the color wheel. It’s useful — and fun! — to dye your own samples of the three primaries, as well as the secondaries and tertiaries you can make with them: 12 basic colors in all. The examples on the next spread were dyed with McCormick’s food colors, but you may use primaries from other “grocery-store” colors or any of the dye companies. These colors approximate the “pure” colors on the Color Grid. To achieve changes in value, add miniscule drops of the complementary color (the color six blocks away from the color you want to change) to the dye mixture. Note: In this book, I distinguish between dyestocks and dye mixtures. “Dyestock” is the basic dye color, usually mixed with water in preparation for use in a dye mixture. A “dye mixture” is a combination of one or more dyestocks in specific ratios.
METHOD
1 Prepare the yarn. Tie the skeins loosely with pieces of scrap yarn to keep them from tangling, and place them in a vinegar-water solution. Soaking removes all the air from the yarn and ensures even dyeing; the acid prepares the yarn to accept the dye. Set the soaking yarn aside while you mix the dyestock.
2 Mix the dyestock. Place the following measurements of food coloring in pint jars, adding enough water to each to make 2 cups of dyestock:
Jar 1 1 teaspoon yellow
Jar 2 ½ teaspoon red
Jar 3 ¼ teaspoon blue
3 Make the dye mixtures. Line up the 12 pint jars and mix the following amounts of dye mixtures:
Jar 1 12 teaspoons yellow
Jar 2 3 teaspoons blue and 9 teaspoons yellow
Jar 3 6 teaspoons blue and 6 teaspoons yellow
Jar 4 9 teaspoons blue and 3 teaspoons yellow
Jar 5 12 teaspoons blue
Jar 6 3 teaspoons red and 9 teaspoons blue
Jar 7 6 teaspoons red and 6 teaspoons blue
Jar 8 9 teaspoons red and 3 teaspoons blue
Jar 9 12 teaspoons red
Jar 10 3 teaspoons yellow and 9 teaspoons red
Jar 11 6 teaspoons yellow and 6 teaspoons red
Jar 12 9 teaspoons yellow and 3 teaspoons red
4 Dye the skeins. Drain and squeeze out the excess vinegar and water from each skein. Add one skein of prepared yarn to each container. Stir to evenly disperse the solution. Allow the yarn to sit in the solution for about 30 minutes.
5 Heat-set the dye. Place a pint jar in the microwave and heat on High for 1 minute. (You may be able to heat-set as many as four jars at a time, depending on the strength of your microwave.) If the water is clear, all the dye has been absorbed by the yarn and you can remove the jars from the microwave, taking care not to burn yourself. If the water still shows color, heat for another minute or until the water clears. Note: See also Jar Method for Small Quantities, page 22, for other options for heat-setting these dyes.
Rainbow-Dipped Baby Sweater uses the three primary and three secondary colors (for pattern, see page 139).
Rug hookers can easily dye wool fabric strips in an infinite variety of desired shades, following the same procedures described here for yarns and fleece.
If you have the time and inclination, you can expand this gradation of colors to a range of 36 by reducing and increasing the amount of dye dilution you add to 36 pint jars, 1 teaspoon at a time, in the established progression. For instance, between Jars 1 and 2, add two more jars, one with 1 teaspoon blue and 11 teaspoons yellow, the other with 2 teaspoons blue and 10 teaspoons yellow. Do you follow the progression? Note that after Jar 12 you need to add two more jars to complete the “wheel”: one with 2 teaspoons red and 10 teaspoons yellow and the other with 1 teaspoon red and 11 teaspoons yellow. This brings you right back to 12 teaspoons yellow.
This simple dye method works just as easily on fabric as on fleece or yarn. If you’re a rug hooker, you’ll find this a satisfying way to prepare a wide and subtle range of colored fabrics. Tear or cut wool fabric strips, soak them in a vinegar/water solution, and then follow the steps above to dye the whole range of colors you want for all of your projects.
There’s more to color than red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Imagine watching the sky on a clear evening. Slowly, subtly, the stars and planets start to appear. It’s not until the sun disappears that we distinguish the bright stars against the darkness of night. We often describe this phenomenon in terms of contrast. Contrast is another aspect of designing with color, and learning to use it effectively can be a big asset to your color work. It can be achieved in several different ways. You might think simply of the way different colors interact with one another, but you can also achieve contrast through the darkness or lightness of colors (known as value), as well as through color intensity (known as saturation). It can be extreme (like the dramatic contrast in the night sky described above) or subtle, and it can have a great impact on whether your projects are successful.
Saturation. A color is completely saturated, or intense, when it is “pure”— meaning that no other color has been added to it. If you were painting, you could add white to create a less saturated color—less intense, less bright — and this is called a tint. To make a duller, darker color, you could add black; this is a shade (see Color Grid, page 68). When you’re working with dyes and fibers, whether your results are tints or shades is in part determined by the color of the original fiber. If you’re dyeing white fleece, the way to maintain a light color is simply to use less dye. Adding more dye of the same color increases the intensity of the color. It is said to be more intense, but it’s not a shade. To darken the color when you’re working with a white fleece or yarn as the base, adding a touch of black results in a shade of the color. (Unfortunately, black tends to produce a dull color, and I usually avoid this; see page 81.) Another way to achieve dark colors is to dye a naturally dark fiber (a light brown fleece, for instance) or to dye fiber that has already been dyed, a process called overdyeing. On the color grid, the pure colors (in other words, the most intense, most saturated colors) are shown in the center column. The columns to the right of center are tints, and the columns to the left are shades.
Get Your Values Straight
Value is measured by comparing a color to a series of gradations of grays on a tool known as the gray scale. Study the plain blue square at the right. Now, compare it to the gray scale next to it. See if you can find the gray square that most closely blends with the blue — in other words, the one that offers the least amount of contrast to it. In this example, it’s the middle square. Squinting usually helps you identify this relationship. Experiment by placing other colors next to the gray scale and notice the pairs that show the least contrast. One of the components of a successful color combination is to include a range of color values. If the values are too close, the combination will be very quiet; it becomes livelier as you add a greater range of values. Pairing a lighter value with a darker value, even if they are the same color, is a recipe for success.
Color is limitless, fluid, like drops of water in the ocean. With all of the possibilities, selecting the proportions of the colors you use is critical. Whether your fiber is used for handwovens, knitting, or crochet, colors and the proportions in which they are used are the keys to success.
Sometimes a color dominates its surroundings simply because there’s so much more of it than of the other colors in the scheme. In other words, the amount of a color in relationship to the colors that surround it affects how the lesser-used colors are perceived. Sometimes this is an effect you want. But dominance also occurs when the color is higher in value than its partners. For instance, equal amounts of blue and white placed next to one another result in a curious outcome: white dominates. Similarly, yellow against a dark background dominates. White and yellow both have very high values.
Another important characteristic of color is referred to as its temperature. Before we’re even aware of seasonal changes, many of us unconsciously start using colors that reflect changes in weather temperature. As the weather gets warmer, off come the dark sheets and towels, on come the lighter, brighter colors. When traveling south I immediately think of light, bright colors. Although there’s a certain logic to this (the quality of light is different from season to season and place to place), I think that we all have color rhythms, not unlike circadian rhythms.
Experimenting with Color Proportions
Take two equal-sized pieces of paper, one all dark and one all white. Notice that when you place them next to each other, the white paper dominates, even though its size is the same as the black paper (in other words, their proportions are the same). You can apply this concept to yarns. If you use equal amounts of light and dark colors when dyeing a multicolored skein, the light will dominate. This may or may not be what you want. Even the slightest differences in amounts of light and dark alter the appearance of the colors involved. Notice how the pale flecks in this Donegal tweed yarn jump out.
Colors can evoke feelings of warmth or of cold. Reds, oranges, and yellows are the colors of flames and the sun, and therefore we often think of them as giving off heat. The descriptions “ice blue” or “purple lips” immediately evoke coolness. The color that forms the bridge between the warm and cool colors is red-violet. If the red-violet contains a bit more blue, it’s referred to as a cool color, even though it includes red; if it contains more red than blue, however, it appears to be warmer. On the color grid (page 68), cool colors at the top gradate to warm colors at the bottom.
I once took a class on color and weaving with Leslie Voiers in Harrisville, New Hampshire. This class transformed my thinking about the use of color. Leslie suggested always putting “oddball” threads in the warp. It was easy enough to remove a thread when it just didn’t work, but more often than not, the oddball thread was the one that picked up the whole project!
FROM BLAND TO STUNNING
You can make mediocre color combinations stunning by adding a surprise. Here’s an example: The flower arrangement on the left is nice but very “quiet.” It’s composed of warm oranges and yellows, which are very close to each other in the color grid (and the color wheel). But by adding just a few blue-violet blossoms — which are complements of the oranges and yellows — the arrangement comes alive.
You can use this principle to make a color combination for a sweater with a multicolor, stranded-knit yoke more successful. These patterns call for a main color, along with one to four or more contrasting colors. When you have an idea of which colors you want to use, lay out the skeins side by side. In order to get a proper impression of the proportions, use the specific number of skeins required for each color. Often, an obscure part of the pattern, such as a flower bud, uses only a few yards of a color. Hide part of this skein to minimize its visual impact and get it close to the proportion of the whole it will have in the knitted piece. (See photos at right.)
Once you think you have the colors you want, look away for a bit. Now look back, squint your eyes, and study your skein collection again. You’re likely to have an immediate response to the combination either as an “okay” or a “no go.” You may notice that the most obscure color is the one that gives your piece life. When you become a dyer, you’ll be able to custom-dye colors for projects like these and get exactly the colors you want. And the bonus is that you won’t have to purchase more yarn than you actually need for those parts of the design that use only small amounts of a color.
It’s more difficult to apply Leslie’s concept to dyeing multicolor yarns, because if the color is just not right, it’s not easy to remove, and in fact, it may very well foul up your project so much that you need to start over. Once I handpaint a fiber, I like to turn away from it for a moment, then look at it from a distance with my eyes squinted, so that I can evaluate what I see. I find that turning away from my work for a few seconds gives me fresh eyes for the task. If the fiber looks flat, dull, or lifeless, I reach for my emergency kit of colors. I’m amazed at how often I use flamboyant hot pink (from the red family), lime (from the yellow family), and turquoise (from the blue family) to give a flat color a “kick.” I usually need only a touch, appropriately added to one spot in the skein, but the difference is huge.
PROPORTIONS AND COLOR PALETTES
When shopping for yarns for a sweater with a multicolor yoke, always arrange your potential choices in the same proportions as will appear in the finished sweater. Comparing the photo at the top to the one on the bottom, notice how increasing the number of purple skeins and including only a small ball of the white skein affects the impression this combination of yarns makes.
When planning a handpainted project, get yourself going in the right direction by visualizing the main color you want, say, blue. To obtain the effect of a rich, deep blue, you must use dyes in more than one shade of blue. For example, mix up some pure primary blue dyestock and apply it to a skein of yarn. Place some of the same blue dyestock you started with in a cup, then add drops of red to it. Add as much as you want, just a hint or more — whatever pleases you. Apply this new color next to the original blue on the skein. If desired, combine some of the original blue dyestock with a few drops of yellow and apply this on the other side of the blue. Refer to the Color Grid (page 67) to identify the colors that surround the original blue and stay within that block of nine squares to create your analogous color scheme. Then, to provide the “kick” that will liven up the whole effect, count six blocks away from the center blue and add just a little bit of this color — the “oddball” — to a small section of the skein. Note: Another way to perk up an analogous scheme is to include some of the pure primary in it.
The Old Masters made use of this trick of the oddball. Study their paintings to see if you can find it. It could be a tiny flower or light reflecting from a window. Anything that catches your eye makes it move around and see the total piece in a new way. It wakes up your mind and makes it more active in viewing the colors.
The rosy tones that dominate this skein of yarn are enhanced by the smaller section of “oddball” yellow-green.
MAKING PRACTICAL USE OF THE COLOR GRID
Relax and have fun with your dyeing. Approach it the way you do cooking. For instance, although there’s some science to cooking (temperature variations and ingredients like baking soda and yeast, for example), you can introduce subtle changes that make all the difference. I often use the classic chocolate-chip cookie recipe on the back of each package of Nestle’s chips. Sometimes I use a large ice-cream scoop instead of a tablespoon to drop the dough on the cookie sheet. This subtle change makes the cookies soft in the middle and crunchy on the edges. My sons love them, an example of how a subtle change can make a big difference!
Similarly, slight variables in your dye procedures, such as changing the pH of the water, can affect the outcome (see page 15). The only thing that’s important is whether or not you like the result. Don’t worry about hurting the fiber you’re dyeing: as someone once told me when I was learning to card fleece, “Remember, you can’t hurt it — it’s already dead!”
Here are some tips for choosing color combinations and playing with variables that make dye experiments infinitely interesting.
Tone down brights. If you’ve got a very bright color that you feel needs toning down, find its complementary color (the color opposite on the color wheel or six spaces away from it on the Color Grid). Add a few drops of this color to your dyebath; it will tame the brightness — reduce its intensity — without losing the color’s energy. (Some dyers use black for this purpose, but although this does darken colors, I think it causes the color to lose life and appear flat and unexciting.) Remember to add just a few drops at a time if you’re mixing the colors.
If you’ve already dyed some fiber blue and it looks too bright, try overdyeing it with its complementary color. Place a few drops of orange (blue’s complement) in a bowl full of water large enough to hold your fiber. Aim for a sort of weak tea of the orange. Dunk the wet fiber into this dyebath and see if it tones it down. Heat-set the dye if you’re satisfied with the result. You don’t have to accomplish the entire jump required all at once, and if you add too much of the complementary color, you’ll get a shade of brown. That’s okay if that’s what you want, of course, but if you’re just trying to tame it, not make it totally drab, you’ll be disappointed. Take it a step at a time. Remember, you can always add color, but you can’t subtract it or add white!
The “electric” turquoise yarn on the right was toned down in a weak dyebath of orange to create the more muted yarn on the left.
Plan for contrast. You can achieve color contrast through both color temperature and color saturation: include both warm/cool and light/dark elements in a handpainted skein (A). Refer to the Color Grid on page 67 to locate those colors.
Vary the color values. If all the colors in your project are the same value, especially if they are too high in value, the eye can find no place to rest (B). (For information on color value, see page 76.) No one can say these two yarns lack energy, but some would feel that color combinations with such high values as these are a little too wild.
Avoid muddiness: stay clear. Allowing too many colors to blend (for example, by mixing equal parts of red, yellow, and blue) results in very dark or possibly even black spots. When you mix two true primaries, you will always get crisp, clean colors. This skein (C) is an excellent example of the clear, unmuddy colors you can get when you mix only true primaries: pure yellow at one end and pure blue at the other results in a clean green where the two dyes blend.
Intensify color gradually. Always start with a lighter dye color than you think you want. You can always add more, but you can’t subtract it.
In example D below, I moved toward the more vivid raspberry of the yarn on the right by slowly increasing the amount of dyestock I added to the kettle.
Be brave: move toward greater color intensity. A piece will look lifeless if it contains too little color. If the color looks too flat, give it a kick by adding some of the pure primary of the main color (see Color Saturation and Color Value, page 76). I found the rather flat yellow-green of the skein on the right in example E rather unappealing, and so opted for a crisper look of the skein on the left by adding some primary blue to the dyebath.
Warm up a combination. To add warmth to a too-cool color scheme, include a warm color that is not too intense — for instance, add pale salmon, rather than bright red, to a piece that feels too cold.
Include an oddball. A small amount of the complementary color adds life to many color combinations. Be sure to include an “oddball” in your color projects, whether you’re handpainting roving or yarn or you’re choosing a number of different colors for a Fair Isle or stranded knitting project. (See Adapting the Oddball Concept to Handpainting, page 79.) I again chose an “oddball” green to offset the warm roses and maroons of the spun yarn (F), while my friend Adrian Bizilia sparked her roving with splashes of green added to the piece in the rear (compare to the white spots in front) (G).
