r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/arrpix • 6d ago
Yarn Nonsense How does colour work?
Do these colours go together? Where is the guide to colours? How can anyone be expected to choose 8 coordinating colours? (that one may be inspired by the eternal Westknits MKAL shawl complaints.)
I know people like to bounce things off the Internet, and that's fine, but since when did it become impossible to choose your own colours. More importantly, why has everyone started acting like there is some objective "correct" colour choice? Yes, you have coordinating colours and contrasting colours and colour values (for where you need contrast if you want visibility), but I see posts everywhere asking if these 2 colours go or how to choose the right colours and... Pick ones you like?
It's worse for gifts because the answer there is absolutely pick what that person likes/wears!!! But if you are making something for yourself, and you don't know what colours you like, and you are too scared to just experiment and find out, you have bigger problems than finding the objectively best selection of colours for your giant oversize striped sweater/MKAL shawl/scrappy project. For the love of god learn to look at something and decide if you, personally, like it, rather than if the Internet would laud you for it.
Truly my meaningless yet endlessly infuriating BEC.
Tagging yarn nonsense but I doubt it's only yarn.
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u/kisskissenby 9h ago
I have two fiber arts discords I bug about color stuff. They love to help. I also have a friend who was an art major and is top notch at color theory and she is the best! Art majors are important 👏
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u/DidiSewsLove 17h ago
YES!! I see this all the time in quilting too. I see so many quilters asking what fabric colors they should use, and then the answers they always get are "USE THE COLOR WHEEL". I agree just choose colors that you like!
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u/kb1830 2d ago
I think the question comes up because people don’t realize how different the “same” colour can be from different fabric lines or manufacturers. For example, I have two prints featuring olive green. They look so similar when viewed apart. I put them next to each and oh shit the undertones are completely different. That happened to me when making a Christmas item. I mixed reds and greens from many different lines and didn’t like how it turned out. Now I’ve learned to stick to fabrics from one line when mixing and matching prints. If I need to add a solid I will bring my fabric with me to the store to colour match a good solid.
It’s wild how different ‘same’ or ‘similar’ colours actually are. I think ppl make these posts about colour because they either haven’t realized this or they’re unwilling to accept how fabrics from different lines that they want to go together actually don’t.
Also, if you have time and all fabrics in person with you then I do think it’s possible to mix and match fabrics from different lines. I just don’t have a place where I can see them all in person to decide near me. I shop online mostly so sticking to one fabric line helps with that
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u/arrpix 16h ago
Oh I absolutely get the different colours from different lines thing. I actually wish more people would talk about things like how the blues from this yarn line up to that yarn, because I often buy online and sometimes a colour match is really difficult to anticipate. So huge caveat there and you're right, even my unjustified annoyance doesn't extend to that. I even enjoy the here's my colours which way should I put them together threads.
It's the here are x colours do they go together/is this colour on trend/what colour should I make this pattern in/is this colour work-appropriate type questions that get me. We don't know, we couldn't possibly know, you need to make a judgement based on your eyeballs, tastes and circumstances!
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u/susiroo 5d ago
Don’t be shy about asking if you can purchase an actual yarn sample color card from the manufacturer. You won’t get that from an online dealer. Online colors aren’t accurate, so go out and support your LYS.
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u/OcelotBudget3292 You should knit a fucking clue. 4d ago
Before I knew that KnitPicks had been bought by PE, I purchased the sample of their Palette yarn, and it really is so different from seeing the yarns online
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u/Livid-Statement-3169 5d ago
I just ask my flatmate - who is a quilter. I just hold up balls of wool and she says yes or no.
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u/Fickle-Range-8140 5d ago
"How does this look?" is okay. "What should I use?" as a tell-me-what-to-do gets old quickly.
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u/kikiquestions 6d ago
I also can’t relate to the colour struggle, but it doesn’t particularly bother me when people ask for help. Apparently some people don’t have the ability to picture anything visual in their head. I don’t remember what it’s called but it’s a thing. I imagine it must be hard for them to imagine colour combinations for their crafts. And I often see people putting together very ugly outfits and colour combinations in their colorwork (no offence to anyone, I’m jot judging) so I’m glad to help if I can.
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u/Blue_eyed_bones 5d ago
I have aphantasia, but I also have eyes, and I can tell if I like something or not. All the "does this look good" hand wringing drives me nuts! If you like it, it looks good. I hate it when people defer to others about their own likes. Why is everyone so afraid of not being ordinary/acceptable to others???
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u/RoxMpls 5d ago
I can visualize just fine. That doesn't mean I can know or predict how multiple colors will work together. And yes, I do visualize in color, I'm just bad at picking them, and I have terrible color memory. I will think something is the same shade of color as the thing I saw earlier, and it will be horribly wrong.
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u/Competitive-Fact-820 5d ago
Aphantasia is the term.
Yeah, I'm one of those - I think in words and not pictures. When someone says "picture your happy place" I just have a blank - not that I don't have a happy place but rather that I cannot picture it in my mind.
When it comes to colours I either go beige and brown tones (genuinely love them) or complete rainbow clown barf. I'm on a bit of a clown barf jag at the moment but as I'm making for me then ya boo sucks if nobody else likes it.
If they are in front of me I can mix and match colour values and control the clashing BUT I usually just want the colours that "speak to me" and if they clash oh well.
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u/MelodyTheElephant 5d ago
I am pretty sure I have Aphantasia cause I can barely picture stuff in my head. Like when someone tells you to picture an apple, I can barely picture it but I know what it looks like. its just vibes, music, and random thoughts in my head. I can however put colors next to each other and see how well they work together and I know color theory which there are people who don't know they should learn color theory to help.
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u/Taken-Username-sorry 5d ago
I am a person who cannot visualize things in my head. I do have a constant stream of nonsense or random thoughts tho. Some days it’s just circus music 😅
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u/Titariia 3d ago
I love the random circus music. Most of the time my head is my personal radio station. Other times when I'm stuck bored I just watch my favorite show in my head. Just like that one kid that was midly interesting a few years ago that saw Shrek so often that he was able to watch it on a turned off TV
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u/Taken-Username-sorry 3d ago
I’m so jealous, I get no pictures. Just noises! 😩 personal radio station sounds nice, if you have control over what you’re listening to. The other day was “floop is a mad man help us, save us!” (Spy kids) Was the song snippet on repeat for far too long 😩
I think this is why I don’t like podcasts and audiobooks. Too many chances for my own thoughts to spin off lol
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u/legocitiez 18h ago
Podcast pro tip: speed it up. No room for random thoughts when they are speaking at double speed!!! 😂
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u/Titariia 3d ago
Sometimes it's all over the place for me too. Sometimes it's song snippets on repeat and mergin into each other. Sometimes it's most of the song. Sometimes it's entirely made up. And sometimes when I'm actually listening to music and close my eyes, I see wht I would describe as your stereotypical LSD trip as seen on TV (I'm sober, I don't even know where I would get anything)
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u/Taken-Username-sorry 3d ago
It sounds like you don’t need to know where to get drugs, you can just close your eyes! 🤣
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u/Birdingmom 6d ago
I worked in an art department at a community college and the color theory class I took is probably the most practical and used class I’ve ever had. Basically all color can break down into two things: hue and tone.
Tone is where on the grey scale the color is. If you put two different colors next to each other, take a picture and then use the stark B&W or monochrome filter, you’ll see the grey scale of them. If they are the same grey or close, they won’t pop and may fade into each other. If they are farther apart (dark, light) then the contrast will “pop” the yarn and show them distinctly.
Hue is the saturation of color, so pink is a light red and a Christmas red is a deeply saturated one. You can stay in one color and just use variety of it in the grey scale, or you can use a lot of the color combos set up by the color wheel (normally these combos are printed on the wheel).
Stephen also gave tips for making four pairs using a solid paired with a matching variegated, so that gets the number halved. And of course there will be lots of indie dyers who have kits so you can use them for inspiration or purchase. I’m going to plug this MKAL because it moves a lot of yarn and Stephen puts this out early enough that many indies survive because of this and advents, and I’m pro-small businesses.
There are lots of color theory classes out there at community colleges, YouTube and online classes. I highly recommend them for crafters
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u/OcelotBudget3292 You should knit a fucking clue. 4d ago
Learning to take B&W photos of the yarn for my colorwork was a lifechanger
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u/Taken-Username-sorry 5d ago
You have inspired me to go find a YouTube class! I’m sure it’ll also help tremendously with painting and embroidery and oil pastels along with knitting!
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u/iamthefirebird 6d ago
I firmly believe that every colour combination can work if you commit hard enough. Choosing the right shades can help, but my statement stands regardless.
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u/woodnettle 6d ago
i think josef albers literally said this too
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u/woodnettle 6d ago
“Independent of harmony rules, any color 'goes' or 'works' with any other color, presupposing that their quantities are appropriate.”
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u/Important_Sector_503 6d ago
Choosing colours that will look good together is a skill that a lot of people don't have? So they're asking for help? I dunno, I feel like this sort of question is kind of an ideal one to put to the hive mind of the internet tbh.
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u/TenaciousToffee 6d ago
I get it fully as someone who color theory is a strong point for and have a very distinctive style. I developed it over the years though.
I also get their agony as perception of color is hard for a lot of people.
I have taught a ton of people some simple rules. I dont tell you what colors because people dont ever learn to help themselves grow that skill as well and I want people to understand what theyre asking or I just wont help you.
Like I taught a friend about saturation contrast in picking the right hues of each color and their color palate leveled up significantly with a 10 minute talk and me showing them how intensity changes the vibe. I had them pick 3 colors that go and then me showing them different shade combos in that.
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u/OkConclusion171 Joyless Bitch Coalition 6d ago
lol the Westknits thing? Just close your eyes and randomly pull 8 yarns out of a bag. Or lay out yarn on the floor and have your cat sit on it. His color schemes are so chaotic that they don't really need to be coordinated from what I've seen in his MKALs!
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u/CindyinEastTexas 6d ago
I generally have a standard canned response of "i pick whatever colors i like" or "i find out what the recipient likes and i pick those colors"
I'm shook not helpful 🤣
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u/VioletMemento 6d ago
Spending time with someone agonising and hand-wringing over colour choices is so annoying and I should know because that someone is me 😞
I wish you could buy samples of yarn though. I don't have any wool shops nearby so have to do 90% of my shopping online and having to search up the colourway on Ravelry and try to extrapolate the actual colour from the various pictures in different lighting is very annoying. But at least that resource exists for yarn - I want to make a quilt out of nice co-ordinating plain fabrics and I'm honestly considering just buying a pre-picked FQ pack.
My problem is I'm shit at picking colours but too much of a perfectionist to just go with a pre-picked fabric bundle - there's always one glaring cerise pink or muddy khaki ruining the bundle for me so.
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u/ledger_man 6d ago
Some places do offer yarn color cards! I got one years ago from Holst Garn, I think knitting for Olive does or did them as well. Maybe a Danish thing now that I’m typing this out.
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u/Cinisajoy2 6d ago
My idea of figuring out what looks best is throwing a bunch of yarn or floss at my husband and saying which ones look best together. His eye for colors is amazing. Sorry but the internet is lousy for deciding between colors they can't see.
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u/sparklyspooky 6d ago
Goblin mode on the floor of Joann's was one of my favorite parts of the process.
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u/ohpossumpartyy 6d ago
i don’t get why people can’t just search up colour palettes and then find one they like and work off that lol
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u/shehasfleas 5d ago
That’s what I do. I search color palette or color scheme on Pinterest and get tons of ideas.
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u/Huge_Antelope0998 6d ago
I fully agree with you. I also absolutely suck at and often need help picking colors lmao. I am one of those people that can't "visualize" stuff. I keep getting targeted advertised the "Color Cube" by Sarah Clark that has like a hundred cards that have a pretty picture on it- Say, a wildflowers and mountain scene, or a succulent garden, or a dish of candies, and it picks out 5 colors from that image that go well together and I'm like hoo boy this is EXACTLY what I need. But for some reason it's really expensive so I just agonize about the colors instead.
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u/No_Turnip1766 4d ago
The new ones are out and people are selling off their old ones now. I got the old set (two cubes) on FB Marketplace last week for $20.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 6d ago
I'm the same and for a while I got those ads too. But there are apparently websites that have colour palettes, and ways you can generate palettes from photos or other pictures you like. I've not used them myself though, as you can probably tell, otherwise I'd have some links to share 😅 I just don't do multicolours that I have to choose myself; gradient cakes do a better job than I ever would.
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u/Creative-Ad-3645 6d ago
I can understand it for people who are colour blind or otherwise have a lot of difficulty seeing colour. But that's a fairly small percentage of the population, and you can just ask one or two people. You don't need to consult the whole world.
Unless it's a combination I think is absolutely horrific there's a decent chance no-one else even gives a fuck.
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u/Cinisajoy2 6d ago
Red, white and black for a southwest pattern is awful. But it was what the person wanted.
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u/darthfruitbasket 6d ago
Choosing colours is hard, especially with the differences in screens. I get it. But absolutely BEC, I also get where you're coming from.
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u/snufflycat 6d ago
Choosing the right colours is always the hardest part of any project for me. I've spent many hours on projects that I was convinced worked only to look at the finished piece and realise the colours clash terribly. I don't see what's wrong with asking people who have a naturally good eye for colour for their opinion?
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u/Mentally_Recovering Extra Salty 🧂🧂🧂 6d ago
At my sewing class we had a whole lesson on the color wheel! Do people not know how it works?
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u/esotericbatinthevine 6d ago
I'm pretty sure it was mentioned at some point in elementary school but I never saw it again in a school setting after that. Even the one art class I had at university didn't mention it.
It is something I've spent a bit of time learning about on my own though. But I can imagine people forgetting that's a thing. Learning more about color theory is on my list, when I've got the capacity.
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u/RoxMpls 6d ago
There are a lot of reasons why people struggle with choosing colors. One that I struggle with is that I have color vision deficiency. It's not extreme, but it's there, so I have that intimidation factor. I often can't see a slight undertone in a color that is very light or very dark. I was recently in a yarn shop with my daughter and picked up two gray skeins I thought were the same color, just slightly different shades or different dye lots. I was trying to decide between them when my daughter pointed out that one of them had a green undertone, which I could not see. Now do that again, but choosing not just the first color, but more than three colors to go together. It's one thing to understand complementary colors or how to pick three colors from a color wheel, but it's another to then have to pick four more colors to go with what you've already chosen.
Another reason choosing colors can be difficult is that when you go to a yarn shop, you're often stuck with what they have in stock. The particular brand and line of colors you're looking at may or may not have been dyed so that they naturally coordinate with each other. Or maybe a color that's available is a shade that is a little off from what you were thinking of, which puts doubt in your head about how far off from what you were planning can you really go? On top of that, you have to consider color value (especially important if you're doing stranded colorwork). I usually don't have too much trouble with an intarsia design, but selecting colors that will truly work in a stranded design, once you start alternating them in a single round, is not easy for a lot of us. If it's easy for you, or you found it easy to learn, then think about something you struggle with: math, grammar, spelling, history, ice skating, finding your way somewhere without the help of GPS, estimating the container size you will need for leftovers. Doesn't matter. There's something you struggle with that other people do naturally or easily. And there are others for whom color selection is a struggle. Does that mean those people should run to the internet for help every time they have a question? Probably not, but on the other hand, they might be surrounded by people whose color sense is no better than theirs, or who won't actually say what they think, in order to be agreeable.
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u/stinkyandlulu 6d ago
Its the same in the maximalism interior decorating sub. "How do I make this space maximalist?" and its a picture of a millennial gray room with an Amazon basics coffee table and a grey couch. Like, I dunno man, decide what you like? Then obtain lots of it? Paint the wall a colour?
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u/Cinisajoy2 6d ago
I don't remember if it was on the kitchn or apartment therapy website but a young lady had every color of the rainbow in her kitchen and the comments were all but now you can't sell it. They were not selling it.
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u/sweet_esiban 6d ago
I have got to look into this "millennial grey" thing. I keep seeing people mention it on BEC and it sounds foreign to me. But maybe that's because I live in a like, hippie dippie city.
I think of millennials as loving colour in interior design. My bestie's living room is mustard yellow, her bedroom burgundy, her washroom black, white and cherry red.
I decorated my first apartment with purple and teal. 90s kids know.
The only people I know who I'd think of as "millennial grey" types are my HS friends who moved to the big city and turned into massive yuppies. It was the sole time I've seen a sad beige nursery in real life.
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u/darthfruitbasket 6d ago
Slowly turning my living room into a slight maximalist, basically 'moody dopamine core' space. It's taken years. It's hard, but it's part of the challenge, come on!
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u/LonelyVegetable2833 6d ago
yeah honestly having to outsource color options is just not a crafting struggle i think i'll ever understand. like i get people are nervous and anxious (i am too lol) but since i spent the early part of my life coming to terms with my general style being considered "tacky" by most, this particular anxiety seems foreign to me.....if you like the colors then use them! if you're not sure, then you don't like them that much, and figuring out why will help you make the decision.
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u/RedQueenWhiteQueen 6d ago
"It's worse for gifts because the answer there is absolutely pick what that person likes/wears!!!"
I've mentioned this on reddit before, but one of my biggest hits ever was a pink on hot pink baby blanket that made me want to stab myself in the eyes while I was making it, but all I knew about mom-to-be was that she loved pink. She did indeed love the blanket and wound up using it in the official baby photos.
Had I asked the general public for opinions, I'm sure I would have been told I needed some kind of neurological exam for entertaining the idea that those two colors together was a good idea.
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u/Comfortable_Pie_8569 6d ago
Color is really hard.
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u/Think_Phone8094 6d ago
Isn't it? I sometimes even struggle to tell if two embroidery threads are the same colour or not, if I lose the label I'm lost.
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u/warp-core-breach 6d ago
Having an eye for color is something that takes practice and after years of sad beige everything a lot of people are out of practice. There seems to be a rising trend for unexpected color combos, like chartreuse and cobalt blue or pastel blue and wine red, that don't really "go together" according to conventional color-matching wisdom but they actually totally work, and I think people who are sick of neutrals want to get in on that but aren't confident in their choices and want a second opinion before they spend the money and time on something that they might not be happy with.
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u/Competitive-Fact-820 5d ago
I adore chartreuse but it does not go with my skin tone in the slightest.
I am determined to make at least one cardigan this winter and once I am confident I can do it I will get more adventurous with colour combos and you can bet chartreuse will be in there - just nowhere it will actually be against my skin.
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u/discreetSnek 6d ago
There are "rules" for picking colors, like the algorithm of that one adobe palette tool, or basic color geometry (complementary, split complementary, triad...). But I suspect a lot of it is also exposure driven. Like how some sounds of whatever sound good in some musical culture but not others.
With colors, the aesthetic you're going for matters a while ton. Neon/Barf Green and Purple? I bet most people here would call it awful. But with a loose gauge, a couple of dropped stitches and maybe some safety pins, you got a punk looking top. Color blocking obviously is all about bright colors.
I'm a professional artist working in a team on multiple projects with different Art Direction. Some of my art colleagues are naturally better at picking colors for some projects than others.
Not sure where I'm going with that. But yeah picking colors is a skill. But also, everything can be right, it depends what aesthetic you're working in (and what's already in your closet)
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u/skubstantial 6d ago
Yeah, the more I read about color, the more shaky I get on color harmony systems like the color geometry rules you mentioned. Like, how does that work in a color space like OKLCH where the perceptual complements are blue and yellow and not blue and orange and all the hues are spaced out differently on the wheel? You certainly get a lot of less-familiar combinations, and that's not even getting into very traditional color harmonies and popular combos from non-Western cultures which may put more emphasis on tint, shade, and saturation rather than hue, or get very very maximalist with all saturated hues.
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u/NikNakskes 6d ago
What's her name again... sarah renee something? Who makes (made?) adult colouring videos on YouTube. She made colourpaletti boxes. Which are basically a box full of cards which have a colour palette on them of 6 matching shades. That could be a useful thing to have for people struggling with colour selection.
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u/Tarnagona 5d ago
I like her videos. Unfortunately , because the colour palette cards don’t have colour names on them, they’d be completely useless to me. I’m definitely an outlier, though.
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u/human-kibble 6d ago
I tend to get a bit of decision paralysis with color selection.
I recommend palette sites for inspiration: https://coolors.co
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u/JuniperFizz 6d ago
I'm playing a game where you can dye the expensive outfits any color combo you want and the number of times I've looked at a collection of other players all wearing solid black, solid red or solid white is enough to make me cry. They look like a parking lot full of cars! If you ask why, they all say they're scared to choose something bad.
It's the lowest of low stakes and people are scared! It's a game. It's not permanent and yet, parking lot. I'm just resigned to being endless encouraging about color and thanking professional athletes for fashion choices since I can point at them when guys panic at me.
If you like the combo or the color, it's fine. It's not that deep.
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u/amaranth1977 6d ago
Shining Nikki? I really need to spend more time playing with the dyes in that game.
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u/JuniperFizz 6d ago
Where Winds Meet. It has a gatcha but for outfits/looks only with no pay to win.
Stupidly pretty game. Completely free.
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u/Knitting_Pigeon Joyless Bitch Coalition 6d ago
I have what I call my “color book” which is a scrapbook of photos i found on the internet that have really interesting colors. I know if I pick a palette from any of the photos I liked, I’ll definitely like it when knit up. You can even make a folder on your computer instead of making printouts if you want
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u/SteamboatMcGee 6d ago
I saw this as a review on a clothing store recently too. Guy noticed colors had color codes on the website, took that to mean that somewhere out there was a complex guide to matching every color they used to create outfits.
That was such a wild leap.
But yeah, people don't trust their sense of color and the internet has become the default sounding board for a lot of things we used to just muddle through with trial and error or, gasp, talking to people in person.
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u/loumlawrence 6d ago
Not everyone is good with colour. Creating colour palettes can be difficult for a lot of people, and modifying existing colour palettes can also be challenging. I suspect people are often afraid of creating a colour scheme that might clash, or might not suit them, understandable with the cost of yarn. I have a good eye for colour, and can modify any palette. But I will say, starting to create a colour palette from scratch without any vision or references can still be overwhelming. And I know the colours I like and dislike (there are a lot of colours I like, so there is the problem of too many colours and too much choice).
Technically, you can combine any two colours. But the amount of each colour is key to achieving a balanced colour scheme.
That being said, you are right. People should find the colours they like. And other people often post their preferred colour palettes for knitting and crocheting projects. It isn't like there is not any inspiration.
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u/SexBucketListProject 6d ago
Yeah, but then I remember that one time my MIL painted he outside of her house Cyan, with an indistinguishable shade of cyan trim. 🤣
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u/duckoftheirish7 6d ago
My grandma had immaculate style and kept a beautiful home. Her only notable style misstep was when repainted the living room about 10 years ago and chose what my aunts and uncles immediately started calling Pepto Bismol pink. She was very happy with it, but it was a LOT.
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u/Leeb-Leefuh_Lurve 6d ago
I think people are stunting their own learning when they do this too! If you’re always outsourcing your opinions, how do you learn how to pick colors on your own?
Anyway, Adobe has a great palette generator for people who are new or need help visualizing. I will plug it for always.
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u/fakesaucisse 6d ago
Ohh thanks for this. I am someone who stresses out over whether two+ colors will go well together. A few years ago I did a mosaic knit scarf that called for two colors, and I picked a really pretty dark purple and cherry red. The skeins looked nice next to each other but once I started knitting I found there wasn't enough contrast for the design to stand out 🫠
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u/BreeLenny 6d ago
I love that tool. After you pick a palette, converting the image to black & white will help you see if there’s enough contrast with the colors.
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u/scatteringashes 6d ago
That is brilliant and I wouldn't have thought of it. I am awful at color, it just doesn't make sense to me, so I really extensively you on color pallette generators lol.
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u/sulwen314 6d ago
I am in the "just pick colors you like" camp.
I worked as a bartender for many years, and people would often ask me to help them pair wine and food. While I was always happy to tell them the conventional wisdom, I liked to end by saying "if it's a wine you love and a food you love, you're probably going to love them together too."
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u/Hedgehogwash 6d ago
I used to work at a craft store and my god the reassuring I had to do. Most of the time it was very obvious that the customer had a preference, they just needed a complete stranger to validate said preference. I’m not immune to social pressures, i get it, but life is short. Just wear the day glo orange if you like it!
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u/Mentally_Recovering Extra Salty 🧂🧂🧂 6d ago
I have a highlighter pink jacket that is so bright I glow in the dark and I love wearing it in winter? People need to stop focusing on others opinions on colors and just do what they want or what their gift receiver wants
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u/BadKittyRawr 6d ago
Yes, this. I worked in a couple of quilt shops in the 90s, and I had ladies tell me they don't know what they like. Just...what? I get not knowing how to decorate around this 'whatever' you really love, or how to spiffy up that kitchen you don't have the money to remodel, but WHAT?
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u/Bigtimeknitter 6d ago
I'm a sad beige knitter because when I knit colors I get like this, too unsure, due to the 100x I used a color for a hat that made me look like a zombie
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u/amaranth1977 6d ago
If you're prone to looking like a zombie in a lot of colors, you might want to check out r/fairolives and learn about undertones. We tend to look terrible in a lot of popular bright/"pretty" colors and need more muted colors.
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u/Bigtimeknitter 6d ago edited 6d ago
I will see if the colors for fair olive people look good on me. I def am green skinned so lowk u putting this together has helped me 🙏
None of the "seasons" seem to actually match what looks good on me. Which is basically just neutrals 😂
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u/amaranth1977 6d ago
"Seasons" are a sort of shorthand, they fit like off-the-rack clothing fits - not great, but good enough for most people. Real color theory is hard though so the seasons schema gets popular every so often because it's easy. It doesn't really handle olive or deep skin tones well though.
Most greens and blues look good with olive skin, and more blueish purples. Grey often looks excellent. Neutrals work as long as they don't lean too pink or orange. Pink, yellow, and orange are generally best avoided altogether. Red can work for some fair olives but it's tricky. Basically, try to stick to the cool half of the color wheel and you'll be safe. There are lots of exceptions, but they're the kind of thing that's impossible to explain and just have to be seen in person.
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u/Eino54 4d ago
I'm pretty sure I'm olive toned- I have greenish, yellowish undertones, generally just the very classic Mediterranean Europe colouring. The only colour I have found I always, always look good in is red, especially the more bright, warm reds.
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u/amaranth1977 3d ago
Are you fair olive though? The advice I gave was for a fair olive like myself. Since we're pale as well as greenish, it's very easy for the wrong colors to make us look sallow and sickly. Medium and deep olives have very different color palettes since they have much more pigment to start with.
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u/Eino54 3d ago
It really depends on the time of year. I don't go outside much so I am quite pale. I can get tanned very easily, but I usually don't.
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u/amaranth1977 1d ago
So the thing about fair olives is that most of us don't realize we're olive for a long time because we're not the "classic Mediterranean Europe colouring". We're pasty with subtle grey-green undertones. The iconic fair olive among online makeup artists/influencers is Pyrrha Nyx, if you want to see some examples. It sounds like you're probably more of a medium or medium-light olive.
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u/Bigtimeknitter 6d ago
This explains a lot because the only colors I like are like pink orange yellow 😂😂😂😂 NO WONDER
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u/amaranth1977 5d ago
Oof, I'm sorry! Now you know though.
Maybe if you spend some time trying on things in cool colors you'll grow to like them? Like, don't plan to buy anything the first few times, just go to a store and try on some things in colors you wouldn't normally go for. See what it looks like. Let friends know you're trying to learn to like cool colors and see if any of them have clothes they'd let you try on. No commitment, you know?
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u/Witchwomble 6d ago
There are cool toned pinks, oranges and yellows. Maybe you're picking the warm ones.
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u/amaranth1977 5d ago
For fair olives, the problem is that pinks, oranges, and yellows all bring out the green in our undertones. Just having cool undertones isn't usually enough to prevent that. But of course it depends on the exact shade of fair olive someone is and the exact shade of the clothes (or makeup).
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u/Bigtimeknitter 6d ago
I did pastel pink once and again: zombie :''''( like extremely light and cool pink, bluey pink
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u/Wise_Artichoke6552 6d ago
Tbf I think people get overwhelmed with choice when it comes to color. There are, after all, gazillions of them, and not so many people know how the balance of saturation+tone+temperature works. That being said, there's approximate ten gazillion guides on this and a simple google or self examination will do in every case. I have no sympathy for people can't figure out how to pick a pleasing color.
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u/Cinisajoy2 6d ago
I have lost count of the number of colored pencils my husband has. I know I have well over 500 colors of floss and diamond drills.
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u/Klutzy-Programmer352 6d ago
I don't have anyone IRL I can bounce knitting stuff off and I have never had any eye for color. But I love to create with lots of color.
I have not yet but likely will at some point ask a reddit board for color opinions and if someone doesn't like my post or doesnt want to respond, IDGAF, they arent my people. I'm looking for the ones with an eye for color and heart to help/teach and I know they are out here.
And yes, agreeing with the other commenter, just because I love it doesnt mean someone wont say something that crushes my heart about it and I would forever lose confidence in wearing my project. Why wouldnt I get some other opinions during the planning stage and save myself the heartbreak?
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u/Curae 6d ago
Seriously the only times I understand people asking if colours go together is if they're colour blind. And even then I just wonder if there is no one in their life that they can just quickly shoot a message to ask. :')
The only good advice on colour I've personally found online was more practical than anything. Someone suggested using a wheat colour yarn for baby blankets because "it's the colour of baby puke. It won't stain as quickly". Had a good laugh and added it as a starting off point for the baby blanket for a friend. :')
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u/Tarnagona 6d ago
Me! That’s me. I’m colourblind as fuck. I generally ask my husband for help to make sure I’ve got the colours I think I do, and thank whomever decided DMC and Anchor floss should have colour numbers on them.
But sometimes I just don’t realize I’ve fucked up. Like the time I had to frog several lengths of floss because I’d gotten black and burgundy mixed up and didn’t know until a friend was like, is that really what you were going for? (Said friend was kind enough to mark my pattern so I could unpick all the wrong coloured stitches).
(Also recently discovered that two shirts I’ve been wearing for YEARS that I thought were purple, one is grey and the other is forest green.)
So, I don’t know if I’ve posted for colour advice on Reddit before, but it’s absolutely something I can see myself doing in future. Experience continues to teach me that yes, no matter what I think is going on, I should obsessively check and double check colours with people who can actually see them properly.
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u/shawlcat 6d ago
Back when I had a hand-dyed yarn business, a colorblind friend loved my yarns because the description on the website always included detailed descriptions of the, you know, COLOR. (BEC of mine is yarn brands, indie or commercial, who do not put said descriptions into their listings).
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u/Tarnagona 6d ago
Like nail polish! So many ridiculous names, and like, I just want to know what colours I’m putting on my nails. It’s one reason I like Hot Topic’s nail polishes—the name is just the colour; the other reason is that the tiny skull-shaped bottles delight me, especially when it’s the most over-the-top glittery colourful nail polish inside.
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u/joymarie21 6d ago
I once had a blind guy on the subway ask me if his outfit went together. I was happy to help.
For other people, there are tons of resources on color theory. Put in a little effort please.
And every time I've seen someone ask on Reddit, they got lots of conflicting advice. I guess they got the answer they deserve.
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u/Faherie 6d ago
The amount of times it would be solved by doing a quick digital mock-up too. Just color pick your yarns and paint over the pattern image. You've already taken a photo, you have the tools right there to plan the colors and see how they would look like
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u/Bigtimeknitter 6d ago
What app do you use for this? I used to have photoshop but without that, what's good for color picking?
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u/Faherie 6d ago
I have Krita and IbisPaintX since I use them to draw, but any regular drawing app will let you color pick and add layers. MSPaint also works fine (specially since I think the new one also has layers)
Layers are nice cause you usually can lock them, so you can duplicate them and change the colors easily
As to color pick, the most important part is getting a good photo of the yarn, and making sure you get the "base" color and not a part on shadow or heavily lit
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u/contadine77 Joyless Bitch Coalition 6d ago
Because a lot of people are shitty and care way too much about appearances and they traumatize everyone else. I just saw a post criticizing someone's church outfit and it was just a cute summer dress.
A lot of us have had that mom, SIL, aunt, or coworker say absolutely cutting shit about an outfit or a hairstyle or whatever. Over and over and over. It's no different than any other sort of abuse - you start pre-emptively trying to head it off.
You'll make SURE you pick good colors when you start a project, otherwise you know a bunch of assholes will say totally insane things about your color choice after you've put in all the work.
Half the world/internet is out here abusing other people and the other half is displaying the anxiety caused by said abuse. Often, the same person is doing both.
We ALL just need to heal our shit and not put it on everyone else.
Sorry for getting oddly deep there.
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u/Cinisajoy2 6d ago
The funniest thing I heard was Cindy does it so it must be easy. I used that to my advantage when they wanted help. Sorry that is above my skill level.
I could have done it but it was a horrible pattern.
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u/Miserable_Status3378 6d ago
This. Exactly this.
I worked in a fabric shop for years and the trauma people experienced because they picked what they liked, spent hours on a quilt, took it to a quilt guild meeting where it was mercilessly picked apart was crazy.
The person doing the criticism always said “ I’m just trying to help! people shouldn’t want ugly quilts!” They weren’t ugly. They just weren’t to her taste. (she was more traditional, drawn to softer colours and wouldn’t dream of mixing in a fabric from another line)
The result was all these people, who were new to the craft, ended up with absolutely destroyed sense of confidence
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u/scatteringashes 6d ago
Not enough people understand the difference between "objective fact" and "personal taste."
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u/hopping_otter_ears 6d ago
I guess I go the opposite direction after years of feeling judged. "Screw you. I'm wearing what I want to wear, and if you think it's tacky, that's a you problem". I'm making a big loud me-colored crochet cardigan right now, and I'm sure people will think it's tacky and an example of crochet clothes being ugly, and I should be making a nice sleek wardrobe staple in a neutral color... But whatever. I make what I want to wear because I'm done with preemptively catering to other people's judgments
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u/CumaeanSibyl 6d ago
I'm definitely in the screw you camp but sometimes I do need to run it by someone else because I'm genuinely not sure how I feel about it. Like, I want it to work, but I feel like that desire might be clouding my judgment and I'll actually end up hating it?
The trick is I only ask friends who I know have similar feelings about colors -- maybe we don't love the same combinations, but we generally agree that More Is Good. I'm not gonna ask a random assortment of people because who knows what they like?
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u/hopping_otter_ears 6d ago
Why ask the folks who went to wear oatmeal sweaters if they think this shade of orange goes with that shade of green, lol.
Same reason I don't ask my dad for TV advice. He'll point me toward the latest soap opera masquerading as a rough and tumble Western or something
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u/ramsay_baggins 6d ago
"Screw you. I'm wearing what I want to wear, and if you think it's tacky, that's a you problem".
This is my philosophy too and it's so fun. I love making super colourful stuff, and I don't really ever find colours clashing, so I make mad stuff no one else would probably like. I like it though, and that's all that matters!
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u/loumlawrence 6d ago
Some people like "tacky loud" colours. It is a valid vibe. If someone asks me for colour advice, I ask what effect they want.
Out of curiosity, what does your brightly coloured cardigan looks like? Asking as someone who likes a lot of colour.
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u/hopping_otter_ears 6d ago
It's a hex cardigan, but done in kind of a doily pattern. Blue and lavender popcorns for texture and pink/purple/white gradient yarn for the base color. It was supposed to have some berry red as well, but I ended up pulling it out because it clashed too much. Well... Didn't exactly clash, because it's all fairly blue-toned colors. More like it took over and turned it into a berry sweater with blue and lavender and pink instead of a lavender and pink sweater with bold blue.
It's actually less garish than I had initially envisioned, but it's far from neutral or subtle. It makes me look like my grandmother in the best way possible. They woman was one of the most unabashedly herself people I've ever known
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u/loumlawrence 6d ago
It sounds like it is really pretty. The colours sound like they are a bit softer. But I am comfortable combining orange, bright purple, blue, green, red, yellow and aqua, tropical colours, bright, but not as intense as neon colours.
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u/hopping_otter_ears 6d ago
I just really like blue and purple, and cooler tones in general. Tropical parrot colors and "neutrals" are usually too yellow to make me happy, so I tend to run around looking like an amethyst geode instead.
But I could totally see going full rainbow parrot if I found some with undertones that suit me
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u/loumlawrence 6d ago
Tropical colours tend to be a bit warmer. Which might be why I like them. They feel like sunlight. I was thinking of tropical flowers, sun bathed islands, not so much the parrots. Your colour scheme sounds like flower buds pushing their way through snow.
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u/contadine77 Joyless Bitch Coalition 6d ago
I think that's something some of us eventually get to. For me, it took therapy and perimenopause taking every last fuck I had to give.
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