Color Theory and How You Can Apply It To Your Crochet Projects | Podcast Episode #113

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Need help choosing Colors for your next project?

Whether it’s a matter of indecisiveness or simply not knowing which colors go together, choosing colors for projects is a common struggle for a lot of people. Did you know you can use color theory to help you? Now you don’t have to have an artistic background or be a pro, but knowing the basics will help out a lot.

In this episode of The BHooked Podcast, I’ll walk you through the important aspects of color theory as it relates to knitting and crochet and how you can use a few basic principles in your next project.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Why, hello there, and thank you so much for joining me in episode 113 of the BHooked podcast. Now, you probably didn’t know this about me, but for some reason, 13 is my favorite number. Maybe it’s my lucky number. I’m not sure. Either way, I’m really excited about today’s show because I get to geek out a little bit and help you in the process.

Now, if you’re brand new to the show, my name is Brittany. I’m your host here at the BHooked podcast, a place that is your safe space, a place where you can come and be inspired and learn something. That’s my goal here with this show. Now, a lot of times I am joined by a guest, somebody who is really good at what they do and they’re sharing their tips with you. Well, today it’s just going to be you and me. And like I said before, I get to geek out just a little bit.

Now, if you’ve been a listener of the show for a while, you know that my history is sort of in the biology world and healthcare. But what you probably don’t know is that before that, I was really interested in going to art school. I was particularly interested in graphic design. I was never really much for sketching and that sort of thing. Still not to this day. I will do it for my designs every now and then if I have to, but I try to do as much on the computer as possible. That’s really where my comfort zone is.

So anyways, when I was the ripe old age of 17, I decided to follow in both of my sister’s footsteps and apply to art school. I remember for this school, not only did you have to submit a portfolio of all of your work, which, by the way, had to include lots of illustration. I had to use different mediums and that sort of thing. But you also had to go in and present it. And I was just terrified.

So I remember the weeks leading up to that interview, not only was I sort of scrambling to be better at something I knew I wasn’t great at, those illustrations, but I also had to learn a little thing about swallowing my fear and just doing something I was really uncomfortable doing. Well, after I finished all of that, I was accepted into this art school and I was over the moon excited.

I knew that I would have to continue doing things that I wasn’t really comfortable with and things that I knew weren’t my strong points, but I knew that what was on the horizon was learning something I really did love in graphic design.

Well, now fast forward to today and you know I’m not a graphic designer. I didn’t end up going to art school. Actually, I sort of learned from my sisters that the field of art and graphic design was very competitive and it really wasn’t prevalent in the area where I was living at the time.

So I went with the smarter decision—at least the smarter decision for me at the time, what felt like the right decision—was to turn down that opportunity and explore something that was a little more safe. And that’s where I started exploring that other passion of mine, healthcare and biology, and that’s what led me down that road.

Well, it’s funny how life just comes about, right? You all know that two years ago, I was able to quit my full-time job working in the healthcare industry to do Be Hooked full-time. I think one of the main reasons why I absolutely love this so much is because I really get to go back to those roots and explore my creativity.

I get to do a lot with graphic design. I get to do a lot with video editing, and now audio editing, and all of that sort of fits into what I knew was my strength and my true passion at the time.

So I say all of this to explain a little bit why I’m geeking out about today’s show. Now, if you remember way back to episode 92, we talked about how to choose the right colors or the right color palette for your project. And at the time, I sort of joked about it and said, I don’t want to get into color theory because it’s such a big topic. Well, we’re going to dive into that a little bit.

So that particular episode gives you some really tactical advice on how you can find color palettes properly. I use paint chips and the little booklets that you can find in the paint aisle at the hardware store. And that still is one of my favorite methods for choosing colors for my projects.

But every now and then, I really do like to think about this. It just challenges me, right? It’s a different way of coming up with the same answer. By the way, I will link to that episode in the show notes if you want to go back in the archives and listen to that. It was a really good one. I know it helped out a lot of people.

Now picture this. When was the last time you just really struggled to find the perfect color palette for your project? Now for me, that was like yesterday. Even though I understand how to pick colors for projects, even though I understand a thing or two about color theory, there is a decisive aspect to picking the right color palette that I tend to struggle with, sort of just an internal struggle of mine.

But I think if we can settle in on something we, air quote, know is right, it’s a little bit easier to make those decisions. So if you are the very structured person, you like tactical advice, you like to play by the book, I think you’re really going to love what we’re talking about today.

Now, if you are more of a reading type, I wrote a guest blog post about this on Love Crochet’s website. I think you’ll find it really helpful if you would prefer just to read it. I’ll go into a little bit more detail here, but you can find all of the information just really straightforward and to the point. I’ll put a link to that blog post in the show notes as well.

And by the way, in order to see the show notes for today’s episode, all you have to do is go to behooked.com/113.

Okay, so first let’s talk about what color theory is and how we can even relate it to crochet and knitting. Well, I have to say that color theory, it really blends two of my absolute favorite things, art and science.

Now for me, color and color theory and choosing a palette for a particular project is a visual form of communication. We don’t always think of it like that, but think about the last time you looked at something, whether it was a painting or a photo or a color scheme on a pillow. It doesn’t matter what it is.

Think about a time when you saw a blend of colors and you were like, oh, I love that. Just the act of seeing that triggered something in your mind that made you feel something. And that’s why using color theory to plan your projects is more than just a way of helping you decide what colors you want to choose. It’s a way of communicating an emotion through your project as well. That is next level stuff.

Sometimes I will go through my finished project bin. Actually, I have finished projects all over my house, if we’re being completely honest. I like to arrange some of my more treasured items, just things that I really spent a lot of time on, projects that I finished very, very early on, and those just have a lot of meaning to me. I like to stow them away in a dresser. I’ve got some containers as well.

But every now and then, I like to sort of go down memory lane and look at some of those older projects. When I do, I can remember what was going on in my life the time that I was crocheting that item or knitting that item. I can remember the time of year that it was. I can remember the podcast that I was binging on or maybe the show on TV that I was binge watching at the time of making that project.

I can remember my mental state at that point—was I happy at the time that was going on? Was I stressed? Was I sad?

And I’m looking through all of these projects and realizing that not only am I creating a project, but I’m sort of creating a memoir.

Now, I want to read the definition of memoir to you because, I mean, we hear that word, we know what it means, but do we really know what it means?

A memoir is a historical account or a biography written from personal knowledge or special sources.

Now we can apply that to our projects by saying that it is a historical account. It’s a biography that we’re writing with our stitches and with the colors that we’re choosing to go into our projects.

So if you are sort of on the fence about this idea of color theory and thinking, well, it’s just too out there for me, think about that. Not only are you creating a project, you’re investing tons of time and effort and energy into these projects, but you’re creating a memoir—something that you can go back through and remember times in your life, but also the people around you, the things that you’re gifting.

Think about when you’re gone. I can’t tell you how much I wish I had some of the crocheted items that my grandmother made, just so I could look through her memoir and see the things that she made and wonder about what was going through her life at the time by looking at the stitches, by looking at the colors.

Alright. Now, when you hear the word color theory, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? For me, it’s the color wheel. Now, even if I didn’t have any knowledge of color theory whatsoever—and I’m not saying I’m an expert here, I’ve just sort of dabbled—it’s sort of a passion, sort of something I geek out on. But the first thing that comes to mind is the color wheel.

That’s something we’ve probably all seen before. And if you haven’t, just do a quick Google search. It’s pretty cool how the colors are laid out on the wheel. In its most basic form, the color wheel is used to develop what we call color harmonies and palettes—a term that I’m sure you’re very familiar with—that are pleasing to the eye.

Honestly? This knowledge is one of the most valuable things in my toolkit. I just don’t always know it.

The color wheel can be broken into different sizes. The most basic color wheel is made up of only three colors: the primary colors. Remember that from kindergarten and first grade when you’re learning about primary colors and how they mix and blend together? That’s what we’re talking about here.

So the three primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. And that means that no two colors, three colors, four colors will blend together to make these three. So—red, blue, and yellow.

Now, secondary colors are the result of blending the primary colors. Now think about it: if you blend blue and yellow, you get green. If you blend red and yellow, you get orange. And if you blend red and blue, you get purple. Those are secondary colors.

Now, tertiary colors are the result of blending secondary colors. So some of the tertiary colors you’ve probably seen are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and blue-yellow.

So when you’re on Google and you’re searching for color wheels, you’ll probably see three different varieties: a really simple one that just includes the three primary colors, a sort of more complicated one that involves the secondary colors as well, and then the more complex—has more pieces of the pie, we’ll say—are the tertiary colors.

Now, how does this relate to knitting and crochet and choosing colors for your project? That’s what I want to spend most of the time talking about today.

As I mentioned earlier, colors make us feel something. So each one of these colors that we’ve just heard, they make us feel something—and it’s really unique to each person. Now, you can really generalize it and say that one color is pretty much going to evoke this kind of emotion, but we’re all unique individuals.

Some of us really love one color and really hate another color. And then you might find somebody else who is the complete opposite of that.

I’ve always really been attracted to blue—I love blue and I love cool colors. But recently, my husband and I moved into a new home, and all of the colors are warm colors. There’s lots of tans and oranges even.

And when we first looked at the house, I thought, “Oh, I’ve got to paint every single room in this house.” Well, of course, when you move into a new house, you’ve got a ton of things to do. So painting every single room, although it seemed like a big priority at first, really—it just wasn’t a priority, right? Unpacking, getting everything in order—that’s what needed to be done. So I’m taking it one room at a time.

Well, a really funny thing happened. The longer I lived here and the longer I looked at these warmer colors, the more I really started to like them. It’s like they grew on me. Isn’t that crazy how that can happen?

Now, I still love cool colors. My office here is called Silver Streak. It’s sort of like a silvery, light powdery blue, and I love it. It makes me feel calm and relaxed and productive. Those are feelings that this color evokes for me.

Now before, I would see a warm color and I didn’t feel warm. It didn’t make me feel… it just made me feel like I wanted it to be a cool color, that I wanted it to change. And it’s silly. I can’t really explain it or why that happens, how that occurs, but I know that it does. I know we can be exposed to a color and just acquire a taste for it.

And that’s sort of what’s happened to me with these warmer colors that are throughout our home.

I also see that same trend with yarn. Way back in the early days of BeHooked, I used lots and lots of bright colors. I was really attracted to them. I loved photographing them. I just loved it. It made me feel happy and energized.

Now I’ve noticed that over the course of several years, I’m leaning more towards neutrals. First, I sort of had my cool neutral phase. And now, I think because of the colors that I see around me, I’m sort of moving into my warm neutral phase.

And so when I’m choosing a color palette for my project, I tend to look at warm neutrals first, cool neutrals next, and then I’ll dabble a little bit with bright colors as well.

So first and foremost, just understand that your color taste will likely change and evolve over time. Secondly, realize that that’s okay—because you’re creating your memoir. Throughout the process of making project after project, you’re creating a memoir—a historical sequence of events—and you’ll be able to see those different phases in your life through those projects and through the colors that you chose when you created them.

Alright now, so the color wheel is really just a tool that we can use to help us pick harmonious colors—just colors that look good together. And remember, the color wheel can be broken into three main varieties, and that is really just the complexity of it.

If you’re wanting to work with really, really basic colors, you don’t need to have a big color wheel to overload you and make you feel overwhelmed with the different options.

So let’s go back to the color wheel to explore the idea of using it to plan your projects.

So the first question you probably have is: Where do I even start?

For me, when I’m planning my projects, I go to Google and I type in “tertiary color wheel.” And I look in the little images section and I’ll just get a nice, clear, crisp image of a tertiary color wheel. Now, I like to use that one because there are more color options available.

Another thing to think about is the yarn that you’re using. Are there a ton of colors available? One that comes to mind is Paintbox Simply Aran. I actually just recently finished a project using color theory to completely plan that palette.

Well, I used a tertiary color wheel because Paintbox is available in like dozens of different colors. So I really wanted to match the specific yarn color to the color in the wheel.

But let’s say you’re working with a yarn that only has maybe 10 different color options. Well, maybe then you would just look at the secondary color wheel.

Now, the planning starts with color themes. And what I mean by color themes is: complementary colors, analogous colors, and triadic colors.

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the term complementary colors before, but just in case you haven’t—they are two colors that are completely opposite on the color wheel.

So think about red and green. If you look at them on a secondary color wheel, they are directly across from one another. That makes them complementary colors.

If you’re wanting to really make a statement in your project, use a complementary color scheme because there’s a sharp contrast between the two—and that just really makes it pop.

So, analogous colors are colors that exist right next to each other on the color wheel, and that theme was the basis for this project I mentioned before. There is a corner-to-corner baby blanket that is so bright and cheery. I just loved every minute of stitching that pattern. I will link to that in the show notes as well.

If you want to check out how these colors go together, they basically created an amazing gradient. And that’s because one, I was using Paintbox Yarns, which—like I said—is available in a lot of different colors, so I had a lot of options to choose from. But because I chose analogous colors, they were beside one another on the wheel.

And so it just… it was a gradient. It started at one color, and as I went up the color wheel, it faded into another color. So we started with sort of like a purpley-pink color and it faded into orange.

So as I incorporated these colors into the project, it created a gradient in the project. And it’s just amazing. Stunning. I love how you can play with analogous colors to create gradients and just a real pleasing experience to the eye.

If you’re just dipping your toe in the idea of using color theory to plan your projects—you’re kind of like, “Okay, Brittany, I will try this. I’m not 100%, but I will try it.”—use this theme.

Go to a color wheel, secondary or tertiary depending on which yarn you have and how many color options are available, and pick colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel.

Now, if you are buying your yarn in a store, I would recommend just pulling up a color wheel on your phone and just comparing it—like making a physical comparison between the yarn that’s available and the color you see on the wheel.

Try to match it as close as possible at first so you really get the full effect of how this theme works and how it will create a lot of harmony and balance in your project.

If you’re shopping online, what I like to do is open two separate windows. I’ll open the window with the yarn color—like the swatches—and then I’ll open a window that has a color wheel on it. And then I can just make that comparison to see how close they are.

Like I said, the main goal is that for your first couple of projects, you really try to get as close to the color in the color wheel as possible so you can create that harmony and that balance.

So that’s analogous colors.

The other color theme is triadic colors, and that is three colors at equal distance apart on the color wheel. It’s also a very easy theme to use if you’re just sort of getting a start into using color theory for your planning.

But give it a try. Look at the color wheel. Find three colors that are sort of opposite one another. Think about a clock, right? So we have 12 o’clock, then we have 4 o’clock, and we have 8 o’clock. That would be like a triadic scheme.

So those are three possible color themes that you can use to plan your projects. We have complementary colors, which are opposite on the color wheel. There usually is a pretty sharp contrast, and they make a pretty bold statement.

Analogous colors usually create harmony and balance because they are colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel. You can do two, three, four, five—the sky’s the limit.

And then we have triadic colors. They are three colors that are equal distant on the color wheel, and they’re usually pretty bright and dynamic.

Okay, so before we can say we’re done—I’ve got my color palette, I’m using one of these themes—I want you to think of one more thing before you make your decisions: who it’s for and what emotion you’re trying to evoke with that gift.

Have you ever heard of red being the color of love and the color of anger? That’s what I’m talking about. What emotion do you want to evoke with the project? And maybe consider incorporating those colors into the project.

So let’s run through some of the most basic colors and the emotions that they’re really known to evoke.

Red is a really interesting one because it will evoke opposing emotions: passion and love, and anger and danger.

Orange is sort of like the color of energy and friendliness. Interesting story here—we have a room in our home that we’ve sort of turned into an exercise room, because personal health and wellness is really a big thing for me right now. And I wanted to have a space that I could go that was just for that thing.

I’m always the safe person. I always tend to stick with neutrals and colors that just aren’t bright. I guess I’m sort of afraid of really bright colors on the walls of my home.

So I’m talking to my husband about, okay, what color should we paint this exercise room? My husband was saying, “Well, if there’s one room where you can really be crazy, it’s probably an exercise room. So why don’t you paint it a color you wouldn’t paint any other room in the house?”

And I thought, well, there’s a really good point to that.

So we have this photograph—it’s actually sort of like a sunset—and I pulled colors from that. So I got to keep my blue a little bit, because that’s my safe space. I love that color. But I painted two accent walls orange.

Now, there were a couple of things that I did there. One is I used complementary colors. But there’s enough orange in there that it’s evoking that sense of energy.

Now, I don’t want to get too off topic with that, but I did want to present you with an example of how different colors can make us feel different ways.

So let’s move on down the list.

Yellow is the color of energy, hope, laughter, and happiness.
Green is generally associated with health, wealth, and new beginnings.
Blue—of course, my favorite color—calmness and trust.
Purple is the color for royalty, for creativity, and it’s generally very soothing.

So this is just the next step that you can take to plan the perfect color palette: choose colors based on the emotion you want yourself or the recipient to feel.

Now, the last really important piece of this puzzle is choosing your main color or your primary color that’s within your project. A lot of times we’ll have contrast colors—we’ll have projects that have maybe two or three bits of color—but the majority of the project is worked in what we call a main color.

Most often, you’ll see main colors as neutrals. They can include black, gray, tan, white, and all of the varieties within those four colors.

The really good thing about main colors is that they really do pair with anything. So any color theme you choose, it’s pretty much going to look great with any of these varieties of main colors.

Another really cool thing about color theory is something called color context. And that’s how colors behave with one another. In other words, do you want the colors to pop or do you want them to blend?

Think about a time when you have seen a granny square blanket and the main color was white. So the majority of the blanket was white, and there were lots of little pops of color—maybe five or six different really bright colors. And when you looked at that, those colors just really popped out. They jumped out at you.

A complete contrast to that would be, we’ll say, a tan color as your main color. And then choose something that’s not a sharp contrast for your contrast colors.

Just remember this rule of thumb: sharp contrast causes colors to pop. Low contrast causes them to blend.

Two colors that come to mind for me are tan and a light blue. There’s not a huge contrast. You can look at that and see the two different colors, but there’s not a huge contrast between the two of them. So that will sort of blend when you look at it from a distance.

All right. So we covered a lot of ground in today’s episode. I really hope you enjoyed this little intro to color theory—and more importantly, how you can relate it to your projects and planning the colors for your project.

So I do want to do a quick recap.

When you’re planning colors for your next project and you want to incorporate color theory, just remember the tool that’ll be really valuable for you is a color wheel. Just for the sake of simplicity, use the tertiary color wheel.

Also think about colors and how they make you feel—or how they will make the recipient feel. What emotion are you trying to evoke? If it’s emotions of calmness, maybe you’ll choose a cooler palette. If it’s emotions of happiness, maybe you’ll choose warmer colors.

To make your life a little bit easier, you can follow themes, and that way you’re not just looking at the color wheel and saying, “Okay, well, how do I pair them together? Which ones do I choose?”

Remember:
– Complementary colors = opposite on the color wheel
– Analogous colors = beside each other on the wheel
– Triadic colors = equal distant apart on the color wheel

Those are three really good starting points.

Now, I would love to know what your biggest takeaway was from this episode. And you can tell me on the show notes page. Once again, that’s behooked.com/113. Just scroll down until you see the comments section and tell me what your biggest takeaway was today. What are you going to use the next time you plan your color project?

Also, if you loved today’s episode, be sure to share it by pinning the image on the show notes page. You can use this episode for later. That’s one of the greatest things about podcast episodes—even if you’re finding this episode years in the future, it’s still relatable today. So if you loved it, share it on Pinterest.

Alright, now—that’ll do it for another episode of the BHooked Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the show if you haven’t done so already. I have some really exciting guests lined up over the next few weeks. That way, you’ll never miss one of those episodes.

Now remember, I am here to serve you. So if there is somebody that you have seen in the knit or crochet community and you would love to hear from them, send me an email. That’ll come straight to me personally.

Just in the subject line, write Podcast Suggestion and include what guest you would like to hear. Or if it’s not a particular guest and maybe it’s a specific topic, you can include that too. I love reading through your suggestions.

So once again, brittany @ bhookedcrochet.com is my email address and you can send your suggestions there.

All right, now I hope you have a wonderful weekend that’s full of yarn. Remember, we are here to turn yarn into anything we want—hobby or lifestyle. That’s what we’re all about here at BHooked.

I hope to be your guide to better crochet and knitting, and I will see you next week, my friend. Bye-bye.