PATTERN RELEASE: Ink Ripples and Color Questions

by Lena Fedotova (ravliki)

There is one thing that always makes me rack my brain as soon as I put my designer hat on. The color! I always ask myself plenty of questions regarding the color, like:

• How fresh is this color?
• Is it trendy or not?
• Is there too much of this color, perhaps?

For example, many people love shades of blue (me including), so sometimes I feel that I want to avoid it in my designs, simply because there are too many blue designs out there. I love finding fresh colors or unexpected color combos, and enjoy seeing projects in dirty muted colors, which still look wonderfully fresh.

I also always worry about how good the color is going to look in the photos. And whether or not there will be clothes in matching colors in my wardrobe for the final modeled photo-shoot. 

Finally, the most important question I ask myself is whether the color will fit the design and its future name. Sometimes the color tells its own powerful story and this is when I decide to change the design name. This is exactly what happened when I was designing my Ink Ripples.

The original design theme and its name was meant to be marine. Deep blue, boat wheels and Malabrigo Lace, incidentally in the shade called "Marine". :) But after I had crocheted the first few motifs, the circles reminded me of something, although I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Then it hit me! Those were blotches of ink on paper! And that was the wonderful moment when I knew I had found the right name for this design.

Ink Ripples has been released and I have taken off my designer hat for now. I can now relax and enjoy Yuliya's design. No agonizing over colors this time: I simply picked the shades which make me happy these days. :)

Enjoy the colors!

Links:

• Ink Ripples pattern by ravliki
• Autumn Waltz Shawl pattern by MsWeaver

• Track the Real-Time Color Trends on Colourlovers.com
• Find trend colors for seasons on Pantone.com: Fall 2014, Spring 2015