Week 37 and Week 38: Using Color Theory to Create an Analogous Color Scarf

The Challenge for week 37 is to learn or review color theory and to find a small block crochet pattern of three rounds to be used for next week's project. I found a great tutorial on color theory from Tiger Color that you can find here.

The Challenge for week 38 is to create an analogous color scarf using the crochet block pattern from last week. Analogous colors are 3 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Yellow, yellow green, and green are analogous. Instead of using only 3 colors for my scarf, I got a little bit ambitious and decided to use them all! (Kind of gives you an idea about how much stash I have, lol!)

Here's the 3 Round Block Pattern I created (US terminology):

Materials:

Small amounts of medium (worsted) weight yarn in three colors

Size H (5 mm) crochet hook

Stitches:

Ch 3 at beg counts as a dc

Ch 4 at beg counts as a dc plus ch 1

Beg CL (beginning cluster): * yo, insert hook into st and pull up a loop, yo, and pull through 2 loops on hook. Rep from * twice. Yo, pull though rem 4 loops on hook.

CL (cluster): * yo, insert hook into st and pull up a loop, yo, and pull through 2 loops on hook. Rep from * three times. Yo, pull though rem 5 loops on hook.

Dc2tog (to join blocks together): Yo, insert hook in st of the first block to be joined and pull up a loop, yo, and pull through 2 loops on hook. Yo, insert hook in the corresponding st of the second block and pull up a loop (you will have 4 loops on your hook). Yo, pull through 2 loops on hook, yo, pull through remaining 3 loops on hook. 

Instructions:

With color A, ch 5 and join to form a ring.

Round 1 (RS): ch 4 (counts as a dc and ch 1). * Dc in ring, ch 1. Rep from * 6 times. Join with a sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch. Fasten off. (8dc, 8 ch 1s)

Round 2: attach color B with a sl st in any ch 1 sp. Ch 3, work Beg CL in same ch 1 sp. * (Ch 3, CL) in each ch 1 sp. Rep from * 6 times. Ch 3, join in top of Beg CL. Fasten off. (8 clusters, 8 ch 3 sps)

Round 3: attach color C with a sl st in any ch 3 sp. Ch 3, work 2 dc in same ch 3 sp. *(3 dc, ch 3, 3dc) in next ch 3 sp for corner. Work 3 dc in next ch 3 sp. Rep from *2 times. (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in next ch 3 sp. Join in top of beg ch. Fasten off.

Abbreviations:

beg - beginning

ch(s) - chain(s)

dc - double crochet

rep - repeat

RS - right side

sl st - slip stitch

sp(s) – space(s)

st(s) - stitch(es)

Using the color wheel, going clockwise, I began with yellow for round 1. Round 2 is yellow-orange, and round 3 is orange. This is the first block in row A below.

The next block in row A uses the next 3 colors on the color wheel; red-orange, red, and red-violet. I completed the next 2 blocks in the same manner for a total of 4 blocks, which uses all the colors on the wheel. For the 2nd set of 4 blocks in row A, I did the same thing, but began with the color next to yellow, from which the first block started. Confused yet? Here's some pictures to help you visualize it. Keep in mind I'm only describing the bottom row A.

First 4 blocks, right to left, beginning with yellow on the color wheel going clockwise.

The 2nd set of 4 blocks, beginning with yellow-orange on the color wheel, again using analogous colors.

The 3rd set of 4 blocks, beginning with orange.

For row B of my scarf I inverted each block of color. Block 1 row A is worked in this color order; yellow, yellow-orange, orange. For row B, I began with orange for round 1, yellow-orange for round 2, and yellow for round 3.

I joined the squares together using black yarn and dc2tog.

I didn't intend to make it complicated, and it didn't seem so while crocheting it, but explaining it is more difficult. I hope this post makes sense! I really did enjoy making this scarf and it was a fun experiment with lots of color and creativity.

Thanks for joining me for week 37 and 38 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge!

Week 23: Make Some Crochet Art!

My inspiration for the Challenge this week is from the word art pictured above. I made this a few years ago and it hangs above my desk where I see it every day. The colors are bright and happy and it's a reminder (not that I really need one!) of why I love crochet so much.

For this week I made another word art creation and used one of my crochet pattern descriptions for the text:

I really enjoy this medium because I can be artistic without having to draw, or paint, and I love words and typography, and of course, color. To try it yourself, check out wordle.net.

I hope this inspires you to create some crochet art that you will enjoy, whether it's created from wordle or not. What inspires you?

Thanks for joining me for Week 23 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge!

It's never too late to join in the fun, and there's no need to catch up, just jump right in:

52 Week Crochet Challenge

Ravelry Group

Explorations in Color - Swatching it Square!

I am often amazed at the color combination's designers create. A friend and I were talking about this recently when I began to think that there must be a way to come up with unexpected color combination's. I have read about the basic principles of color theory, and I do have a color wheel that was a great help to me when I created a scrap afghan. But, I thought, there must be something on the web that I could use - and I was right!

http://swatchspot.com/

Using this site you can create 6 random color choices. You can also lock one or more of the color choices and choose shuffle colors to change the unlocked colors.


Swatch #1

My first try I kept it completely random and decided I would crochet up a traditional granny square of 5 colors, matching the colors to yarn as closely as possible. I chose to leave out the bright green color, and to use the colors as displayed in order starting from the left.

I was pleasantly surprised and I really like the color combination! They are definitely not colors I would have thought of myself.









Swatch #2

For this swatch I decided to leave out the last color. And I didn't want to use another light mint green like I had in the first swatch, so I used a light gray color instead. I can't say that I like the colors, but it was a fun experiment in what colors I probably wouldn't use together.







Swatch #3

For this swatch I left out the blue colors and instead opted for a dark green for the last round. Not a surprising combination, but I could have used more of a gold color for round 4 instead of the buttery off white, which also would have worked well.





Swatch #4

For this swatch I kept choosing shuffle colors and locking in some of the brighter colors. I left out the dark brown in my granny square and again crocheted them in order of the color swatch. This was fun to play with, and I really like the color combo's except for the center beige color. It would have been better with a light pink or bright pink center.




I certainly enjoyed myself doing this experiment. And I will definitely use swatchspot.com in the future to explore other color combination's. Check it out if you have a chance and I'd love to hear about your own unexpected or "different" color combination's.

Continuing Crochet - Weeks 1 and 2

So I haven't been busy blogging (obviously) but I have been busy crocheting and I thought I would post here about what I've been up to. I am currently teaching a Continuing Crochet class that is 7 weeks long, and this Thursday will be our 6th class. I didn't have a set lesson plan because I wanted to find out from my students what sort of projects they would be interested in learning. So, each week I devise a lesson plan and work up a project for the next class. It has been a success, with 8 to 10 students each week.

The first week, I wanted to keep it fun and get some ideas from the students about future projects, so I started with embellishments.


We learned how to make fringe, tassels, pom poms, and twisted cord. I had square cardboard templates for the fringe/tassels and circular templates for the pom poms. Pictured above are the samples that I made up. The blue variegated tassel is made from size 3 thread.

Week 2 centered around color work. I handed out a ripple scarf pattern that I designed, which includes simple color changes.


I haven't yet decided if I'm going to add fringe to mine or not. I'm real happy with the colors I chose for this project. Several of my students have completed their scarves, and they really enjoyed working this stitch and pattern.

The same week I also introduced them to working from color charts. And here is the chart:

Each square represents 1 stitch in single crochet, and 2 stitches in double crochet. I also provided them with basic instructions to complete a potholder.


Above are pictures of the front and back of my sample. We used the stranding method (also called the carry over method) to work the colors for this project.

Pictured below, the top photo shows the same chart worked in single crochet. The picture below that is a single crochet fabric with cross stitches worked over them.


The cross stitch sample above reminds me that I still haven't completed my Search to Be Square, but I have several samples of that to post later on. I will also update you next week of Continuing Crochet - Weeks 3 and 4.

Thanks for stopping in :)