Its been few days since I took
Brandon Mably's incredible class. My head is still a swirl of colors and words.
When I was in junior high school, an art teacher attempted to teach us color theory. I was hopeless! I could never remember what were primary colors and what were secondary colors. Was it a tint or a shade? Happily this is
NOT what Brandon's class was about.
We scattered partial skeins of yarn on the floor. Brandon then
rolled around in the yarn told us that if we looked closely enough, some color combinations would catch our eye and trigger emotional responses. And this is when the magic started happening!
Next we formed two appropriately named Magic Balls--one of light colors, the other of darker colors. Using the Magic Balls, we knit the Persian Poppies pattern. Fair Isle. EEEEK! I'd never knit fair isle before and my fair isle is hardly the fairest of them all. But, after making some mistakes, magic happened and I got with the program.
Here's my pre-lunch swatch:
Brandon put the swatches on the board and it took me a few seconds to recognize mine. And this also is part of the magic! Brandon told us that we should always step back and look at our knitting. What looks wonky and weird close-up may actually be quite lovely when we step back.
After lunch, more Magic Ball and more Persian Poppies. Magically, we all seemed more confident. I know I better understood what Brandon meant about trusting our intuition when putting colors together. Even colors that don't usually speak to us shouldn't be dismissed if, when put next to another color, they make something pop or trigger an emotion.
Once again the swatches were pinned to a board and discussed. Brandon saw beauty in each one even when we saw our flaws.
And then, just when we thought we knew what we liked and didn't like about our swatches---Brandon turned the board upside down! And, like magic, there was something totally new!
