I’ve been on a bit of a color kick this morning.

It all started when I was reading through my news feeds and clicked on a link to view Sally’s blog. I don’t normally view her site directly, so I hadn’t seen the design of it in awhile, including the gorgeous aqua color she was using for header text and links (sadly, it’s gone now). I became so enamored with this color that I started thinking of what it would combine well with, beyond the white, yellow, and gray on her site.

I kept thinking about these color combinations on my way to work, noting how colors I saw along the way might work or not work with the aqua. I thought about ways I could play with these combinations, either with paper, paint, or digitally. The last method made me think of a Flickr color tool I’d seen awhile ago.

When I got to work, I couldn’t find the exact tool, but I did find another that was rather fun to play with. The Flickr Color Selector lets you choose a color, and then it loads Flickr images that contain that color. It’s really quite fun to play with and I came across some really lovely photos, including some simple but beautiful ones by tomooka, a photographer in Japan.

I kept following this color kick, eventually coming across a few more color tools that are intended for creating schemes. First, the “kuler” site by Adobe lets you create schemes by starting with a base color and applying a bit of color theory to them, or by making your own custom combinations. If you use any of the Adobe CS2 programs, you can even download the schemes and use them there.

I also found a program called Color Schemer, which lets you do about the same on your own desktop. You can export the results to another program and even share them in their web gallery.

I poked around a bit to find some color wheel posters, but most were based on red, blue, and yellow. When I took a class about color last year, we focused on cyan, magenta, and yellow as the primaries, and I’m a bit fond of these instead. I couldn’t find a full poster, but I did find a nice CMY color wheel I’ll probably order soon.

I’m really quite fond of and sensitive to color, and this was a fun start to realizing its appeal yet again. I’ve been in a bit of a creative lull, but I’m hoping that this will get the juices flowing again. And all because of a single color!

After my preparations for the craft fair, I sort of lost interest in crafting for a bit, possibly from having cranked out so many cards and things in such a short time. I decided not to push it initially, though eventually I thought I’d jumpstart things with a cross-stitch project. Unfortunately, that didn’t get too far.

I felt like I wanted to work with similar materials, but on a larger scale, possibly with yarn. I remembered the vintage “Weave-It” loom that I bought a few months ago, so I dug that out and started reading up on how to use it.

I messed up my first two squares, but then I figured out what I’d done wrong and have the hang of it now. It’s not too hard to do, especially since there’s only one long strand to wind around, rather than having several threads going each way. I’ve got a small pile of woven squares now, each just under 4 inches on each side. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with them yet, but you can sew them together to make larger pieces. On their own, they’re about the size of a nice coaster, so there’s one idea.

The weaving itself is a nice process, without too much thought required. The fun part though is choosing the yarn and seeing how it’ll turn out. The variegated ones are best, since the changing colors create nice combinations when you’re done, but the textured yarns are nice to try as well, since I’m still learning what kinds work best.

Of course, the yarns I had to begin with weren’t that varied, so I’ve been doing a bit of shopping at a few local yarns stores. I’d heard about a few of them before, but hadn’t ever been in a single one, seeing that I don’t really knit or crochet or anything. It’s really great to see what they have, especially compared to what I’m used to seeing at the chain craft stores. The local yarn shops may carry more expensive yarns, but they’re definitely a lot higher quality, so it’s usually worth it. I’m even thinking about trying to learn how to knit and/or crochet again, but no promises.

For what it’s worth, the loom I’m using is called a “Weave-It” and I happened across it in a local crafters’ mall, sitting among some older craft supplies. They’re no longer manufactured by the company that created them, but you can find some older ones on eBay. Another company is actually making a new version called Weavette, and there was a feature about them in Martha Stewart Magazine a few months ago. They’re definitely not like the hardcore looms you think of when you talk about weaving, but it’s not a bad place to start.