Monday, May 21, 2012

Colour love

Before I show you any pictures from the colour game I played this weekend, try to imagine being at a window that overlooks three different back yards, two of which are having their grass cut.  That's my world right now and these colours look SO much more amazing to me with the smell of summer and fresh cut grass wafting past.


This is toffee coloured rust on black wrought iron, from a gate in front of Canada's Parliament buildings.  For a long time I would never ever wear brown and black together and one day I thought, Hello, why?  This picture confirms for me that they look fantastic, and if you have a shade that really pops it's definitely worth knitting brown into black.

(though realistically, how many of us knit with black yarn?)


Speaking of Pop, it's tough to beat red over sand.  I like it over the grey-blue of the window's reflection, too.


This is the same building as the flag one - the lower windows' grills were painted in this heritage blue you see on a lot of older buildings and really, I think the combination evokes a lot of history as well as looking pretty peaceful.  In knitting I think I'd prefer the blue as the base and the sand as the pop.  What about you?


I made another short trip to the cottage, this time to go through all the closets and drawers and get it ready for summer use.  I found so many treasures - my uncle has an incredible eye for old stuff and he and my aunt entertain a lot so they had a need for multiples of everything - and after washing these two trivets and the bright red tray I stacked them and noticed how awesome the cream is over top of a colour riot.  The red of the apple isn't the same shade as the red floral border but it does ground the mixture.

I guess the lesson from my weekend of photography is that I like neutrals with brights?


Here is a detail from the middle trivet - wouldn't these colours make an amazing Fair Isle?  The fuschia really stands out for me, and the turquoise of course, but again - check out how the neutrals help to ground them, while tying them together (even the blossoms have a slight pink blush.)


And another on the same theme - colours that are just over the top, toned down to an overall effect of calm and elegance.

Okay, enough birds, let's look at that crazy folk art tray:


Just last week I visited the blog of a woman who loves nothing more than these wild prints, and it looked to me like she could find something new to write about them every day.  (and now I am kicking myself for not noting the name of it: sorry!) I don't actually love this look but her blog gave me a new appreciation for it and that was lucky since I was about to find this tray, which my aunt used to hold her cottage teapots.

Another thing I really like about this tray?  It's the only thing I found that breaks from the cottage's prevailing theme of orange/brown/green and justifies my purchase of these two fabrics, for curtains:


We seem to have gone from sombre and muted to crazy super bright, so let's go back to something a little more natural:


the view from the window of the living room at the lake.  Of course we all know that blues and greens look great together but I noticed in this picture that the blues of the lake and sky are different from each other, and the greens vary from dark and old to new and spring.  There's some white in there too.  Another great Fair Isle combo, I think.

Putting together these pictures made me think about shape and line and style.  But that's a topic for another day - right now, it's time for me to tuck in to a lazy long weekend chair with another cup of tea! Hope you're having a lovely Monday too (even if it's not a holiday where you are and I just rubbed it in, heh.)

2 comments:

Kathleen Taylor said...

How lovely! And Love the new blog look!

Renik said...

I've found your game very intresting. To be honest, today I've made a few photos too. It was not because of looking for an inspiration but just in order to catch for a moment the world changing so quickly. However, these photos can be inspirational, and your as well. Best wishes, Renia