Of all the decisions to be made in knitting colour choice is something that I find particularly difficult. Given to chronic indecision and procrastination at the best of times I can spend hours and maybe even days trying to decide on the perfect colour combination.

This particular pattern (a test knit for a friend) is for a striped shawl which relies on relatively high contrast between the striped sequences for a dramatic visual effect. Pick yarns that are too close in shade or tone and the effect will be watered down and bland. On the other hand I want to create a shawl that is wearable and that works with other clothes in my wardrobe. I love a neon Stephen West shawl as much as the next person but my own wardrobe choices tend to be a little more conservative.

Colour theory is always something that I've been aware of from afar - my normal tried and tested method for colour selection is to pile all of the potntial skeins onto the bed and randomly match them up to potential partners. But recently I have been doing a little more reading into the subject and I found this fabulous article from Knitty which really explains the detail of colour theory in a way that I had never really 'got' before.

I also came across this book: Colour by Victoria Finlay which looks absolutely fascinating and was in my Amazon shopping cart faster than you could say Yarn!

I can't wait to read it and will be sure to report back.