5.03.2012

Finding the Contrast

Have you ever picked two yarns for a color work project only to find midway into the project that the pattern is coming out muddy? This is usually due to a lack of contrast between the two colors or colorways you are knitting. It's easy to find a light color and a dark color that create a nice level of contrast, but what if you want to knit with some of those middle shades? When Sarah and I were at the paint store a few weeks ago looking at pinks and greens, she told me about a technique for finding the contrast she saw online. When looking at two colors, lay them next to each other and take a picture with your camera phone set on black and white and compare the shades of grey. If they are the same shade or very similar shades, you might want to pick another pairing (keeping in mind that when dealing with mid-tones, you won't get a pure black and white level of contrast.) Since I needed to pick out a pink and a green for a colorwork project today, I thought I would record my process of selection. First, I picked two pink and two green skeins and photographed the four combinations.

Combo 1
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 4

For the purpose of demonstration, I photographed them in color and removed half the color in photoshop, but normally I would go straight for the black and white setting and make the judgement from the screen on my camera or phone. As you can see, combos 1 and 4 have the least contrast, 3 and 2 the most. Since personally I prefer combo 2 and it has an adequate amount of contrast, that is the one I will choose.

1 comment:

Siri said...

What a nifty idea, very simple and effective. Will have to try it out next time I want to do some stranded colourwork.
Siri