I have been knitting a lot and reading knitblogs for almost three years, now (my official anniversary is sometime around Labor Day, when my mother gave me a sweater’s worth of Cascade 220 and a copy of Vogue Magazine. I still have not finished that sweater). In that time, I have seen slow shifts in taste with regard to color, and I think it’s fascinating to watch.
For example. Three years ago when I started this, the fashion world was in the grip of the Pink And Black thing. Suddenly all pinstripes in women’s clothing were pink. You know what I’m talking about, and you still have a pair of those trousers in your wardrobe. It was the rebirth of pink–its re-inauguration, after who knows how many years (because I don’t remember it ever before in my lifetime) of being on the no-no list for everyone over six years of age. I’m so glad that pink came back.
Then the black turned into brown. Pink and brown was hot. Two collections of Charleston fabric in brown and pink sold out practically before they hit shelves, and I’d bet that 50% of Moda lines produced from then till this day have brown and pink as two of the colorways. I like brown and pink. You know I do.
Duck-egg blue and brown was the side note. It is still the side note. Cite my “Lucy” socks, as well as my as-yet-unblogged Three Planned Sweaters From Rowan Yarn, which are all blue and brown. Charleston III was blue and brown (and it was shocking, and IV is back to pink and brown). I guess that the blue and brown is for people who never fully embraced the Pink Revolution? Well, yes, I guess.
At some point, green became an acceptable addition to the pink and brown pair, and it was tempered with cream to create good value contrast among the colorways in Moda lines. I like this. I see it as a sort of Autumn/Wintry variation on the cheerful pink and green of my bedroom quilt. I have plans for this Maison de Noel fabric–I’m going to make a “spider web” quilt out of it. It will be super-cool and it will be easy, you’ll see. Some day I’ll do it. Some day… when I finally unpack the box that has my rotary cutter in it. Sigh.
What I left out of my order for this collection was the Berry colorway, a nice deep jewel-tone red. Unsurprisingly, I left it out because I was behind the ball. Moda was on the ball. They saw the next color evolution coming. And the next evolution? Well yeah, you know. Pink and brown and cream… and red. I’ve waxed lyrical about it already, and shown you pictures of sock yarn. What I haven’t told you yet is that…
I got my hands on some of the Claudia Handpaints colorway “Peppermint Mocha,” which is exclusive to The Loopy Ewe. I’d previously bemoaned being unable to buy it. I had previously been close-minded. Turns out that there is… or at least was… plenty of it sport-weight. I soooooooo ordered.
I like the obvious textile-as-food association with Christmas: striped red and white peppermint candy, also brown mocha with a little tan foam on the top. Mmmmm. I really like the color combination, though. The red is brighter than I had imagined it being–the browns are not as deep–but it’s growing on me, especially as I knit it up into a pair of very thick and squishy bedsocks:
Aren’t they great? This red-brown-pink-cream thing is really wonderful. I like it so very much that I’ve ordered a few short pieces of the Maison de Noel Berry colorway, and also was one of the two lucky people who caught the Yuletide Blessings fat quarter clearance at ShabbyFabrics:
As with the yarn, the reds are brighter and the brown not as brown… in fact, it’s almost an olive here. I am thinking of making a lap quilt of tiny eight-pointed stars in these fabrics, separated by a cream-on-cream print. I am all about high-contrast motifs on neutral-on-neutral backgrounds, right now, and also all about matching socks to quilts, especially since these color vogues are developing so interestingly. In fact, there is a further evolution that I will blog about tomorrow…
Get ready for pink-brown-orange.
