The natural color variations in a sheep's fleece are a sight to behold. Emma and Fergie, two colored romney ewes are perfect examples. Emma's fleece appears soft brown with variations of taupe, oatmeal, and chocolate mixed in. Look at her and you see the sweater or the shawl you've always wanted. Women look at her an gush over her color. Fergie's fleece is a darker, almost charcoal brown with sun bleached light brown tips, that also creates a really interesting look. Then there's the colored Lincolns who have this natural gradation of color that flows from black to charcoal, to medium grey to light grey to silver all along the side of their bodies. It's would make a quilter so jealous. Unfortunately, when we wash and card the wool, the fibers get so blended together that we loose much of the gradation. That's why I look to dyeing and hand painting fibers to create one of a kind yarns.
Choosing colorways for the year is part of the reflecting, planning, and preparing that is winter farming. I spent the better part of a day reading up on 2011 color trends and reviewing color theory. Luckily for me I grew up with a mom who was an artist and color wheels and art books were part of our home. When I was really little I had sets of cake watercolors, but by the time I was in elementary school, my mom supplied me with tube watercolors and taught me how to mix colors on a palette or a plate. Thanks mom! So if you don't know much about colors and color theory and you want to create your own color ways, you might want to get yourself a color wheel. Often they come with basic information about color printed on the back.
Monitoring color trends is important because if we're going to wear that scarf, shawl, shrug, or sweater - we want it to go with something that's in our closet. And we want it to look current. So where do you look for that? When I think of color and design, I think of Pantone. On their website you'll find information on both fashion and home interior color trends.Then just Google terms like color trends and you'll pull up a list of lots of websites that address color and design.
Then I look to nature - particularly the natural landscape of my neck of the woods - a farm, the southeastern Minnesota Bluff Country, the prairie, and the north woods. I also reflect on the colors of the seasons as well as the colors of the sunlight, sunrise, sunset, and skies throughout the year. One of my colorways for 2011 is "Winter Sky" a blend of natural white, soft gray, soft turquoise, and light blue. Every day when I drive to and from work, I see these colors in the early morning and dusky winter sky. Another nature inspired colorway I want to explore this year is "Thunderstorm." Think of the low white clouds you can almost touch and the darker gray clouds above. The lack of sunlight makes ponds look like silver glass. Even the land looks black. So "Thunderstorm" is a blend of white, grays, and black. Numerous trout streams dot the local landscape. "Deer Creek" is one of the darker colorways combining navy, teal, evergreen, olive, and gold. "Pairie" takes its name from the native tall grass prairies of the northern plains.It combines a variety of greens with a little gold, a little peach, a little blue, and a little plum.
Inspiration comes from my daily life. I live in a 1900 farm home, furnished with antiques and family heirlooms. I farm and garden. Colorways like "Hay Rack" (white, yellows, tan, gold) represents the bales of hay and straw stacked in the barn. "Keepsake" (dusty rose, peach, and brown) and the variation "Chintz" (dusty green, peach, rose, and plum) are inspired by fabrics and china. "Summer Garden" (orange, blue, green, yellow) represents the marigolds, calendulas, cosmos, and tithonia that bloom in August. "Earth" combines terra cotta, brown, tan, light blue and medium blue - the colors in hand-thrown pottery we've purchased over the years at art fairs.
How about looking inward for your colorway inspiration? What qualities do you value? Can you associate colors with them? For instance, what colors come to mind when you think of dreams. My "Dream" colorway is a blend of spring green, aqua, and iris. Is there a color combination that seems really playful? My "Playful" color is like a child's party - a combination of lemon yellow, orange, pink and bright blue. Seeing it makes you smile. I'm not quite a "red hat lady" but I do think of myself as a "wild woman." There's a fire of inspiration, passion, and creativity inside me. The "Wild Woman" colorway combines fiery orange, reds, and magenta with just a little turquoise or blue or violet. Wear it around your neck and you feel unstoppable.
Finally, you can always borrow your inspiration from others. When we established Kindred Spirit Farm, we looked for a color combination that represented kindred spirits - two or more colors in combination. We wanted it to be hopeful and vibrant. We knew what we wanted, but we needed an example. One day my husband say an advertisement in a business magazine. He tore it out and exclaimed, "This is what I want." "Kindred Spirit" is a combination of tomato orange, bright yellow, light blue, and bright blue. Its bright, energizing, fun, and spirited all in one. We painted our barn and outbuildings tomato orange and the roofs bright blue! It was awesome. Follow our lead, go through your magazines, take a new look at the artwork on your walls. If all else fails, go to Google and select images. Search "art yarns" or "colorways." Are there any images that you'd like to copy?
Our farming operation gradually shifted from horses and horse therapy to sheep and fiber. Now we use Carolina Blue and vintage pinks to represent our farm. These colors can be seen the design of our website. In many ways, the photograph of Dudley, our Leicester Longwool ram is the inspiration for these colors.But we still keep the original "Kindred Spirit" colorway alive through our yarns.
Once I know my colorways, I cut out pictures or take pictures of places and objects that represent the colorways. I glue the pictures onto 3X5 index cards. I label them. Then I go the the fiber dye color charts to identify the colors of dye I need to purchase. Later this summer I'll experiment with the dyes and blends. I'll write notes and dye recipes on the back. For now, my work is done. I've identified 22 colorways that I'd like to explore. Maybe I'll produce only four or eight this year. The important thing is I have clear options and a plan. I've got my shopping list of dye colors I need. I'll be ready when the time is right for dyeing.
Choosing colorways for the year is part of the reflecting, planning, and preparing that is winter farming. I spent the better part of a day reading up on 2011 color trends and reviewing color theory. Luckily for me I grew up with a mom who was an artist and color wheels and art books were part of our home. When I was really little I had sets of cake watercolors, but by the time I was in elementary school, my mom supplied me with tube watercolors and taught me how to mix colors on a palette or a plate. Thanks mom! So if you don't know much about colors and color theory and you want to create your own color ways, you might want to get yourself a color wheel. Often they come with basic information about color printed on the back.
Monitoring color trends is important because if we're going to wear that scarf, shawl, shrug, or sweater - we want it to go with something that's in our closet. And we want it to look current. So where do you look for that? When I think of color and design, I think of Pantone. On their website you'll find information on both fashion and home interior color trends.Then just Google terms like color trends and you'll pull up a list of lots of websites that address color and design.
Then I look to nature - particularly the natural landscape of my neck of the woods - a farm, the southeastern Minnesota Bluff Country, the prairie, and the north woods. I also reflect on the colors of the seasons as well as the colors of the sunlight, sunrise, sunset, and skies throughout the year. One of my colorways for 2011 is "Winter Sky" a blend of natural white, soft gray, soft turquoise, and light blue. Every day when I drive to and from work, I see these colors in the early morning and dusky winter sky. Another nature inspired colorway I want to explore this year is "Thunderstorm." Think of the low white clouds you can almost touch and the darker gray clouds above. The lack of sunlight makes ponds look like silver glass. Even the land looks black. So "Thunderstorm" is a blend of white, grays, and black. Numerous trout streams dot the local landscape. "Deer Creek" is one of the darker colorways combining navy, teal, evergreen, olive, and gold. "Pairie" takes its name from the native tall grass prairies of the northern plains.It combines a variety of greens with a little gold, a little peach, a little blue, and a little plum.
Inspiration comes from my daily life. I live in a 1900 farm home, furnished with antiques and family heirlooms. I farm and garden. Colorways like "Hay Rack" (white, yellows, tan, gold) represents the bales of hay and straw stacked in the barn. "Keepsake" (dusty rose, peach, and brown) and the variation "Chintz" (dusty green, peach, rose, and plum) are inspired by fabrics and china. "Summer Garden" (orange, blue, green, yellow) represents the marigolds, calendulas, cosmos, and tithonia that bloom in August. "Earth" combines terra cotta, brown, tan, light blue and medium blue - the colors in hand-thrown pottery we've purchased over the years at art fairs.
How about looking inward for your colorway inspiration? What qualities do you value? Can you associate colors with them? For instance, what colors come to mind when you think of dreams. My "Dream" colorway is a blend of spring green, aqua, and iris. Is there a color combination that seems really playful? My "Playful" color is like a child's party - a combination of lemon yellow, orange, pink and bright blue. Seeing it makes you smile. I'm not quite a "red hat lady" but I do think of myself as a "wild woman." There's a fire of inspiration, passion, and creativity inside me. The "Wild Woman" colorway combines fiery orange, reds, and magenta with just a little turquoise or blue or violet. Wear it around your neck and you feel unstoppable.
Finally, you can always borrow your inspiration from others. When we established Kindred Spirit Farm, we looked for a color combination that represented kindred spirits - two or more colors in combination. We wanted it to be hopeful and vibrant. We knew what we wanted, but we needed an example. One day my husband say an advertisement in a business magazine. He tore it out and exclaimed, "This is what I want." "Kindred Spirit" is a combination of tomato orange, bright yellow, light blue, and bright blue. Its bright, energizing, fun, and spirited all in one. We painted our barn and outbuildings tomato orange and the roofs bright blue! It was awesome. Follow our lead, go through your magazines, take a new look at the artwork on your walls. If all else fails, go to Google and select images. Search "art yarns" or "colorways." Are there any images that you'd like to copy?
Our farming operation gradually shifted from horses and horse therapy to sheep and fiber. Now we use Carolina Blue and vintage pinks to represent our farm. These colors can be seen the design of our website. In many ways, the photograph of Dudley, our Leicester Longwool ram is the inspiration for these colors.But we still keep the original "Kindred Spirit" colorway alive through our yarns.
Once I know my colorways, I cut out pictures or take pictures of places and objects that represent the colorways. I glue the pictures onto 3X5 index cards. I label them. Then I go the the fiber dye color charts to identify the colors of dye I need to purchase. Later this summer I'll experiment with the dyes and blends. I'll write notes and dye recipes on the back. For now, my work is done. I've identified 22 colorways that I'd like to explore. Maybe I'll produce only four or eight this year. The important thing is I have clear options and a plan. I've got my shopping list of dye colors I need. I'll be ready when the time is right for dyeing.
