Tipsy Tuesday

I usually do Treasury Tuesday but I decided to switch it up with Tipsy Tuesday which will focus on giving you tips to use in your crochet projects. 

I promised you last Wednesday that I would have color theory tips for you today. So I am going to talk about some simple color theory. 

My father is an artist so my younger years had palettes of colorful paint near an easel with a painting in progress. My dad really liked to do color studies of nature photography. He would take a picture of a waterfall, or a mountain landscape and manipulate a color family to mirror the photo he was working with. He would sometimes let me color with the chalk and oil pastels while he worked and I learned to LOVE color. 

I generally work in color. When I design a crochet collection I base it on colors. I tend toward bold color combinations but I will work with insane brights, pastels, primary or muted tones. I then find yarn to match my vision. So I am going to give you a few tricks that I use when working with color. 

First here is the color wheel. 

I use color wheels all the time. They are an extremely helpful tools even if you are not a designer.

TIP 1: When stash busting go "Around the World" working around the color wheel in a circle. Start at a dark shade of one color and move into lighter and/or brighter shades and then back into darker. So you end up moving from the middle of the color wheel to the edge and back down again.

I used this technique for the stash busting walk through last week. 

You can also use this technique when choosing colors for your next project whether it is your own design or you would like to use colors not indicated in a pattern you admire. 



This is an example of Around the World I am currently using in a project.
                                                    







Tip 2: I call it Opposites Attract. Use opposite colors on the color wheel. I use this technique most of all and I find it suits me best. 

I used it when I created my Medallion Art Scarf and it sold the same day I listed it on Etsy. 












Here are the medallions close up


















Maybe you're not one of those crazy people who can just put yellow and purple next to each other and think "Perfect!" That's okay, there are ways to navigate color wheel opposites without too much insanity. 

If you are using bolder colors you can use in between color shades, like blue-green or red-orange. For instance, if you want to use green but you don't want to be Christmas, use a pink. This is an example of Opposites Attract from one of my own designs I am working on now. Coral (which is a mix of orange and pink), Strawberry Pink (which is a richer pink tone), and Pistachio Green ( a green with a little bit of yellow to share with coral). Delicious!


You can also use neutrals, like creams or browns, or the grey scale as an accent color to break up two opposites. Just be careful when using black and white because they give you a bolder pattern and if you wanted a muted feel to your project they are not good choices. 

Butter Yellow                      Lilac                     Royal Purple

Lastly, you can use two tones of the same color with a direct opposite. I love working this technique with floral patterns. It turns out incredible.





Okay there are my two color theory tips for our Tipsy Tuesday. More tips are on the way. 

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