Yellow Around the House
Awww, Izzy. She was a pretty and sweet cat!
Like many animals we’ve known, she knew how to present herself to her best advantage. The Holstein-patterned fuzzy fabric matched her perfectly and made us wonder “Is it a cat? Is it a cow?” Meow!
The yellow margarine tub happened to be nearby, adding a pop of color to the mysterious scene.
Yellow with black traditionally means danger or caution, in natural and human environments. Think of bees and some wasps, with their yellow and black abdomen–Beware of the stinger! Think of yellow and black striped road signs that alert drivers to bridges or odd intersections–Watch out!
I think that tiny bit of white lifts the yellow-black combination from the caution zone into a happy place.
When I saw Lion Brand’s black and white FunFetti (now discontinued), I didn’t even make a study swatch. I combined it with yellow Wool-Ease to make this scarf. It was my first yellow triumph, thanks to Izzy the cat.
We had wildflowers around the house: Texas Bluebonnets, which you probably recognize as lupines; Winecups, which look like brilliant Easter eggs hiding in the grass; and profusely yellow Engleman’s Daisies. They form one of our spring’s most delicious color combinations.
The bouquet inspired me. I wanted to knit the blue, magenta, and yellow.
But wait! Let’s go back to the basic steps in Studying Yellow, Part 1, and answer the questions:
What other colors are near the study color (yellow)?
In the garden, I saw blue and magenta near the yellows, but also green.
Are the nearby colors lighter, darker, or similar in tone to your color?
The magenta is darker than the yellow, but they seem to have the same saturation. They’re brilliant. The blue and greens seem paler and recede from the brilliance of the yellow.
Do you see shadows or highlights that enhance the study color?
There are some shadows in the greenery, but to me they don’t enhance the yellow.
What are the proportions of the various colors?
In the bouquet, the proportions of yellow, magenta, blue, and green are roughly the same.
For my swatch, I went for randomly colored intarsia squares. I love this sample!
Really, it’s one of my favorite samples and I have wanted to expand this idea into a project for a while—like over a decade. But what would I make?
Within the past year, I think I have settled on a project.
Poet Sandi Horton has written several pieces for my Celebrate Doilies exhibit. She sent me a few as inspiration for a wall hanging. Her poem “Texas Hillside” describes these flowers almost exactly, and someday I’ll make a randomly-colored intarsia check wall hanging about it.
