As promised, I’m back today with more colour thoughts for your consideration. All of these pairings are available in the shop right now but I hope that the ideas I mention can help you to see all yarn shopping and even your stash in a new light. There is nothing I love more than pulling out my own yarn stash to pour over it with fresh eyes; every time I see something new and interesting!

I’m starting out with On Fire! mohair, a radiant and rich orange red. For those of you who enjoy bright and warm colours, this colour is for you.

Here is Cacao with On Fire! These two are an easy match: Cacao is full of reddish pinks, so they have lots in common. Both are saturated and will balance the other out well. This combination will retain the depth of Cacao as well as the intensity of On Fire, but soften all the edges ever so slightly. You can see pinks jumping out of Cacao - a sure sign that these guys are a good match.

Next up is Old Rose with On Fire! The same relationship of pink with orange/red is going on, and you’ll notice that the pinks in Old Rose are really popping here. Old Rose is a cool pink, so there is a little bit of contrast with the distinctly warm notes of On Fire. You’ll see a marled effect with these two because there is so much value and intensity contrast going on. I expect that Old Rose will cool off and soften On Fire!, resulting in a glowing pinkish mid value colour.

Oh boy, I think this is my favourite. I can’t get enough of this rich Sugar Plum p&a. It’s one of those colours that is so soft and deep that sometimes you can’t see the bottom (if ya know what I mean?) Sugar Plum contains an interesting balance of warm and cool, clearly full of purple but warmed up with subtle layers of brown and red. I think these two will create a knit that undulates between warm, cool, purple, red and all the spaces in between, just like hi lights and low lights in your hair, all while retaining the intensity of theses two colours.

Last up, Lettuce with On Fire! is sooo intriguing. Sometimes combining complimentary colours creates a neutral and other times one will really surprise by completely dominating the other (usually due to saturation and intensity). In this mix, I’d expect to see some warm greyish notes emerge and for On Fire! to be toned down just a little. However, Lettuce is a warm green, so this pair has lots of yellow in common and I think that’s what makes this match work. You’ll likely see their marl effect very clearly and notice that this combo will shift depending on your setting. I’m so curious about this pairing that I might just knit a swatch…!

Next up, I grabbed some colours to pair with Lettuce Polwarth & Alpaca...

Here, Lettuce is next to Shell mohair. A pleasantly in-between colour, Shell really shifts depending on who it’s paired with. In this case, it reads as quite warm next to Lettuce with delightful murky and mysterious notes. Yet it remains bright and beautiful. Together I expect these two to remain warm, light and bright. Both are mid saturation so the overall value should be relatively unchanged. Shell will likely tone down the brightness of this green, so if you’re in it for Lettuce, this might not be the choice for you.

But Dew Drop might be just right. It is very close in value with Shell and Lettuce (maybe a wee bit lighter) but is cool rather than warm, and looks even cooler next to Lettuce (which suddenly reads more yellow!) The combo of these two will cool off Lettuce and warm up Dew Drop while landing somewhere in the spectrum of warm and cool greens. Very likely, it will be one to shift with light and setting. A really fun experiment in temperature that is sure to have a watery feel.

Next up is a darker warm neutral, one of my all time favourite Viola colours, Pony. Pony is a brown that is heavy on the pink. It’s full of secret pink and Lettuce will draw that out (can you see it?) Pony is darker in value, so this combo will create a bit of a marl and darken Lettuce at the same time. Yet, I expect that the clarity of Lettuce won’t be lost. This pairing could be really fun.

Last, I’ve shown Lettuce with Silver Birch Mohair. Again, you can see how Lettuce pulls out all the pink from Silver Birch. Unlike Pony, Silver Birch is much lighter than Lettuce. I often find that lighter colours of Mohair are dominant, so I’d expect to loose more green in this match, even driving lettuce to read as a cool ish neutral in places. As I mentioned above, sometimes combining complimentary colours creates a neutral…that could be the case here as green meets pink. But you can’t ignore the beautiful balance of these two hues, they’re going to create something good!

I’m really on a roll with this colour analysis so you can expect more in the future. If you’ve enjoyed these posts, have any questions or want to chat more about colour, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

As always, you can find me at hello@violaandthemoon.com

Emily xo