Tranquility, Strength and Optimism

Blue is everywhere. It's the colour of the sky, the sea, lakes and oceans. We see it in the crevasses of a glacier and a robin's egg. Our woodlands spring into early summer with carpets of bluebells, and we name some of our most treasured places with names such as the Blue Mountains of Australia, or the Blue Ridge Parkway of North Carolina ‐ one of my favourite places to sit and knit.

It is no coincidence that the Japanese word for indigo blue, Ai, is also the word for love.

And it would be hard to imagine a Pantone colour forecast without some kind of blue in it. Who can forget the vibrant royal blue sweaters and dresses from the 1980's? They were everywhere. The same colour came back in a couple of years ago and had a brief flurry of interest, with cobalt skirts and jackets in the shops once again.

However, since then colours have toned down quite considerably. Here is the colour forecast for Fall/Winter 2015/2016 with the "Stormy Weather" colour I featured in my last Knitting Notes post. In this collection the blue was dark, reflective, almost retiring and sombre.

However, for up-coming season, blue has become lighter again and it is not just one of the colours in the palette – it is taking centre‐stage. Pantone speaks of "the desire for tranquility, strength and optimism" inspiring a colour palette lead by blues. They speak of a "cool and calming colour which maintains a sense of constancy”.

And that seems to be the main theme for the coming season – cool, calm, constant…

So here are some knitted placemats in just this shade. Cool enough for a summer lunch under the sun umbrella. Constant enough for autumn meals when you're safely back indoors again. 

These are the Mendip Placemats and the pattern includes two different sizes of rectangular placemats and a central oval tablemat, which features a strong purl‐banded design to provide some protection for your tabletop.

The stitch pattern has been taken from our Reversible Knitting Stitches book and has two very different looks on the front and back. One side has a neat ridged appearance while the other has a more fluid, casual feel, so you have a choice of two looks for the set.

It certainly is a perfect time for meals out of doors right now, with balmy evenings and sunny days scented with roses and lilies here in New England. The colour is just right for the season too. The placemats shown are worked in Rowan Original Denim, but any worsted weight cotton yarn in a light indigo colour would work well too. 

I love it when the coming colour trend is also a favourite classic shade. Indigo, denim, blue… the colour of ages‐old tradition, our youth and next season all wrapped up into one. Perfect.

However, Pantone didn't just name a light blue as the colour of the year, but they chose a pink as well – as we shall see in the next post. If you would like to see the first Knitting Notes post in this series, please click here, then follow the links at the bottom to get back to this point.

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