Episode 5 - Color

In today's episode, Bess and Jen talk about how to use variegated yarn in your knitting projects, tips for including multiple colors in your knitting projects, and choosing yarns that fit into your wardrobe. We share all of our favorite resources, and explain how we choose colors for our design projects. Whether you prefer trendy colors or timeless neutrals, we hope that you'll find something informative!   Next episode, we'll be talking with Harper Bee (@Disyarning) about Slow Design - make sure to hit subscribe & notify to get an alert when that episode is available! Looking for links? Sherwin Williams Color ID Collections Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, by Carol Sulkoski Color Confident Stitching, Karen Barbé Wool and Palette - Sign up for Emily's newsletter and get a PDF of her "Going Beyond the Rainbow" color guide. A note on microns, from Hannah (thanks for sharing, Hannah!): Micron count is a measurement about the fineness of the fiber. Lots of things affect it, including what the sheep encounters in a certain season, but especially including the age of the sheep. By encouraging people to look at micron count, we are driving market pressure towards younger sheep, and may encourage the culling of older animals. You can definitely use micron count to predict whether or not you can wear a fiber against your skin. You can find merino in commercially spun yarn in a range of fineness. But if you want to experiment with variety in breed specific yarns, you’re going to need to start spinning. There are two reasons for this - first, the mill machines are able to work on yarn within a certain range. Super low micron count fibers cannot go through the same process that mid-range fibers can. There are very few mills domestically who can handle super low micron count fibers like cashmere, so if a low carbon footprint is important to you, that might be another factor to weigh. Second, farmers can get a much better price selling those fibers directly to spinners than they can selling it through a mill. So if you want to get your paws on some of those breed specific yarns in lower - or higher! - micron counts, consider spinning some up. Also, we'd like to note - Farmers growing very small batch fibers have written to share concerns about the conversation around micron counts and the calls for including that information. It’s not practical for farmers at that scale to be constantly measuring micron counts. Personally, we consider farm yarn to be it's very own thing, and would rarely be evaluating it for against-the-skin wear. Overall, tl;dr, we'd love to encourage listeners & watchers to make room in the wardrobe for all types of fibers. For more info on using yarns that you might find scratchy, check out Jen's article here. Find us online www.knitfixandchill.com, or email at [email protected] Bess's website & newsletter: https://elizabethmargaretdesigns.com/  Jen's website & newsletter: https://www.jpknitsthings.com/  Or find us on IG at @elizabeth.margaret.knits and @JP_Knits_Things