3 steps to a more playful color palette

(And which have nothing to do with color theory.)

Three of my favorite handmades and my absolute favorite pink sweater in a shade I dyed myself: dogwood.

For the past few years, I’ve been working on a fully handmade (sewn and knitted) wardrobe. Unlike more methodical makers who might sketch out their choices in advance, or deliberate carefully about fabrics and colors, my choices have been pretty haphazard.

Looking back, I can see that all along I’ve been playing.

I’ve chosen patterns that simply struck me, in the moment, as fun to sew or fun to knit. I’ve chosen fabrics or colors that just felt soothing. It feels decadent to share this (and somewhat antithetical to how essays or social media are supposed to work).

My explorations haven’t been neat or tidy. They haven’t made for elegant flat-lays of materials or beautiful studio in-progress shots. My projects have been messy, with threads on the floor and untidy piles of fabric scraps and leftover yarn. In short: they’ve been full of real life—and, I now see, they’ve been filled with the joy that comes with playing.

In the most unintentional of ways, I’ve learned a little bit about color and play and I want to share what’s worked for me in the hopes that it will work for you, too, and maybe can add a little bit of space and joy to your life.

1. Always pick your favorite color.

   
   Even though my official favorite color has always been purple, I found myself craving pinks in those early pandemic days of knitting and sewing. I gave myself the space to just work with the colors that felt soothing to me, so I leaned all the way into pink. Pink linen, pink yarn, pinks that leaned toward peach, pinks that leaned toward blush.
   
   A funny thing happened when my newly handmade items started accumulating: I had unintentionally begun a capsule color collection. Those various shades of pink, all of which gave me that feeling of spaciousness I was craving in the claustrophobic early pandemic days? They harmonized and felt cohesive in my dresser drawers.
   
   While there are lots of articles to show you how to pair colors, how to use a color wheel in building a palette, and how to be methodical and deliberate with your color choices, I’d like to encourage you to be okay doing the opposite. Choose a yarn or a fabric pattern or a tonal shade that’s simply your favorite. You might find unexpected things happen as a result. I know I did.
   

2. Write yourself a permission slip to not know what you’re doing.
   
   When I was new to mothering, I read a lot about the importance of play for babies and toddlers. How it helps them learn about the world, how it builds emotional skills and aids in brain development. What I didn’t realize was how much play would become important to me. All the wonderful things that play does for young people? It does the same thing for us, too.
   
   Play is about not knowing. It’s about experimenting, trying things, acting things out, learning, and most importantly simply being without any “productive” purpose.
   
   Play can be hard for us grown people. It’s hard to let go and experiment for all kinds of good reasons—economic constraints, cultural norms. But when we can break free and give ourselves room to not know what we’re doing, to make something that might be beautiful but also might be ugly, to lose ourselves in the process of creating? This is important, too. When we give ourselves permission to not know what we’re doing, to try anyways, and to say to ourselves “whatever the outcome, it’s okay, because I’m playing,” we quietly subvert the cultural norms of perfection. We make a little more space for the kid inside.
   

3. Lead with your heart.
   
   I believe that color and fabric and texture makes life sweet. The blush pink of the dahlia blooming in my tiny garden patch. The pink dogwood tree I remember from my grandmother’s front yard. The streaky pink gold of a sunset viewed with my best friend. I was remembering all of these things when I chose pink fabrics or dyed the pink yarn for my handknits. These colors now wrap me, quite literally with my clothing, but also metaphorically, too. They wrap me with the sweetness of life, and this deepens my ability to hold or bear witness or tolerate or work through all the very hard and very real things that happen in life.
   
   My best advice to you is to find the color that makes your heart sing. The one that says to you: Deep breath. This is me.

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Mini-skein bundles to inspire your own color play

This week’s offering is a shop update full of yarn and mini-skeins, loosely planned around my newly refreshed Paintbox Wrap pattern.

While the yarn is ideal for knitting the Paintbox Wrap (just choose one neutral skein + one mini-skein bundle), these bundles are also ideal for playing.

There’s enough neutral yarn for you to knit a fingering weight sweater in any size (and when it sells out, I’ll convert it to preorders, which should have just a 3-week turnaround because I have lots of this base on hand). And the mini-skein bundles are perfect heels, toes and cuffs in socks; colorwork yokes of fingering weight sweaters; striped hats or cowls; or simply sitting on your yarn shelf to inspire you.

Here’s a preview of some of what’s available in the shop right now:

And if you don’t have a copy yet, today is the last day to get my Paintbox Wrap pattern at 20% off, in celebration of its re-release. This is a perfect pattern to have in your library, ready for mini-skeins, easy to wear, and soothing to knit.

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As your week unfolds, I hope that, no matter what else happens, you are able to find some time to play. Whether that’s a quiet moment with your stitches, a deep breath outside, or a full afternoon of exploring the colors that make your heart sing, I hope that play finds you and nourishes you.