Color Blind Knitter // Casual Friday #7

[@vadec5909]

What an interesting casual Friday!! Thanks for sharing Roxanne

[@MrsMelrom]

What did I take away from this? Your mother was an awesome and admirable trail-blazer.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Yep. She was a pretty amazing mother to have while I was growing up. While I was aware of that to some extent while I was a kid, it wasn't as obvious to me then as it is now.

[@lindalechristenberry7321]

Where may I locate the pattern for your hot pink cable/turtleneck sweater? I love it. It’s a pattern that I haven’t seen before. So thanks for answering! 💁🏼‍♀️ you wore it in the video I saw just before this one! 😊

[@RoxanneRichardson]

It's a sweater I knit in 2009 from a 2004 issue of Rebecca Magazine, which is a German publication. I couldn't get a copy of the magazine, so I reverse engineered it from a photo. www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/41-sweater-with-diagonal-ribs-and-cables

[@valeriebishop561]

Loved all the info on your color troubles and how you are working with it! GO Rox!

[@georgyevans]

So interesting to hear about colour blindness and the impact it has on your life.

[@AStateofDeNile]

Loved your red shirt. I could not imagine being color blind. When I am in a fabric or yarn shop, the staff know that I am great at helping someone pick out colors. I have helped pick out many a color for quilts and knitted items. What gets me is the fluorescent lighting - that sure can play tricks with a color.

[@lindarose712]

Learned so much from this one; especially important regarding the impact of differences in color perception. So thankful for your decision to share your experiences.

[@cobyteune]

Thank you so much for talking open and honest about color blindness. I am not color blind, but this helps me to understand more and more my son and my husband. This is eye-opening!

[@ElizabethatREMAX]

Very nice podcast. Good insight on being color blind. Thanks for sharing.

[@Laura0IN]

I dated a guy when I was in high school and he was a college student. Learned he was color blind when we were driving home and took the new overpass that went through the interchange around a new stretch of interstate. The lights were the brand new sideways. He had stopped at the light because he saw the yellow in the middle but he didn’t know when to go. I told him the light was green, you can go…and that’s when he said, I’m color blind and he asked which side the red was on and which side the green was. He said never seen a sideways light. I always just go TOP is Stop and bottom is green.

[@gfixler]

I just realized that you published this video on the day I started knitting, at 40 years old. I saw a Let's Knit magazine on the racks at B&N, which came with yarn and needles, and I'd been wanting to try knitting for a very long time, so I grabbed it. It didn't come with any info on how to knit, so I hit up the KZbins. Now, 7+ months in, I'm completely addicted. I went to all 26 shops on the LA Yarn Crawl in April. I'm surrounded by bins and stacking drawers and piles of yarn. I have notes files with more than 50 design and/or gift ideas (many I don't yet know how to do!) taking me through the rest of the year and a few months into next.

[@sandygrogg1203]

Oh, man.. That red sweater is just awesome... and will look great on you..

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Only...2 or 3 more months until it's warm enough! ;-)

[@r.mcd2921]

Really interesting. Do you find your night vision to be especially good? I learned that tendency about color blindness when reading Oliver Sacks' book "The Island of the Color Blind." Excellent read, of course, as are all his books.

[@gailspangler9024]

Your story time really made me think! I seem to have certain shades of colors (blues and purples and a bit in the greens), that I have had heated ARGUMENTS with people over. There is one particular shade of blue, that EVERYONE around me insists is purple, but I am adamant is a very vivid blue, with zero red (to make purple) in it. Holy cats-- is it ME??? Unfortunately my parents (and all their siblings) have all passed, so there is no one to help dig into the genetics of this. But, I THINK I may have some color blindness. It simply never occured to me, that that was my problem with coordinating colors, both in my clothing and in my yarn work. No WONDER I seem to dress in blacks and greys and navys, and can NEVER seem to find two colors of green that "go together!" Thank you for the brain food today!!!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

There are various online color vision tests you can take. Enchroma (the company that makes the sunglasses I was talking about in the video) has a test. enchroma.com/test/instructions/ Was your father color blind? (Or maybe he had mild color blindness, and never knew it.)

[@shoelessmonk1941]

Gail Spangler hi Gail ! i did not mention in my pubic comment that i have problem with blues and purples also. i thought it was just me and felt crazy mentioning it. i have had arguments with my adult grandchildren over blue and purple. other colors seem just fine. my parents are both gone also. im certain moms sight for color was fine. but im not sure of my dad. i have worked with watercolor and am now double thinking if my cherries and grapes were correct in the way i saw it. i couldn’t imagine having a really severe problem with color blindness. i plan to take the test that Roxanne suggests. anyhow, so glad you mentioned your blue and purple problem, i dont feel as alone now. stacy

[@theastewart6721]

What an interesting story! Thanks for sharing. I think my nephew is color blind. I’ll have to ask my sister. She mentioned something in passing. She lives far away so I never thought about it again until I listened to your story. Your knitting is beautiful!

[@bettycortez-tate4284]

My husband is color blind but insists that he is "shade blind" or he calls it red/green difficient. He has a grey suit that he insists has red thread running through it. He can't tell the difference in car colors either so we always have a cream colored car. You helped me understand his way of seeing color as he has been the only person I've ever known that is color blind. So thank you.

[@lyndabaillargeon4955]

Me again thank you for teaching me about color blind i have learn a lot. Your red shirt is amazing.

[@gfixler]

I love your videos, Roxanne. Thanks for sharing all the info on color blindness here. I'm always interested in this topic. I spent the first half hour wondering if you'd tried Enchromas :) Now I know they're not a magic fix-all, especially for yarn vision. I have perfect color vision, but it's the kind of thing I might have recommended to others.

[@DjastinFaiht]

Yeah, I had the same. I was glad you tried the enchromas out and could tell us about them in combination with yarns. I wish they would work for that as well. I have a friend who is crocheter and she's colour blind and I wish I could give her a hand on that to make her life a bit happier. Thank you!!

[@KarenDavisKaroda]

I cannot see colors except for some reds and blues. In order to see tones of other shades there has to be a flood of bright light. It is a result of damage to my optic nerves. I still continue to knit and crochet. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@lyndabaillargeon4955]

Hello Roxanne thank you for your video always interesting and love to wath them all. I always learn something when I watch your video. I would love to learn an easy pattern with fair Isle for socks with one circular needle. You explain so well it would be so much fun. Thank you have a grat weekend!!

[@heathersharp-keys8240]

I thought your sweater was blue! I know I'm moderately colorblind, I can't tell orange from certain shades of red and blues and greens are difficult to discern. I so appreciate your story. So is your sweater blue or green. Looks blue to me. I love the yarn dyers and makers label their yarns with real colors like jade or orange. I buy kits most of the time. My cousin wants me to pick out the yarn group for the project. The only 2 kits left are ugly. One looks like white with three different ugly grey's. The second kit left has only yellow with 2 that look like black and a white. I'm hoping the next time I look they'll be sold out.😊. I love the socks and hat you did. I thought the Anderson kit with the fabrics were pretty, but you said that wasn't really a color you liked and it looked really close to the beautiful aran sweater you were wearing. Now I wonder what color the kit really is? Light definitely affects me too. You are super! I love your voice and stories and podcasts.

[@paulagrnsy]

You are really a great storyteller!

[@sheryltisdale]

Love this, being mildly colorblind myself, I have 2 sons who are mildly colorblind . I know my great grandfather was severly colorblind, how great that your mother is a geneticist !

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Has being color blind affected your knitting/what you choose to knit? I had a student come to one of my clinics one time and we were bonding over how much we loved textured stitch patterns, especially cables. I mentioned that I thought part of the reason was that I was mildly color blind, and it turned out she had the same reason for loving cables!

[@sheryltisdale]

I don't because I will do like you said and ask someone or read the color on the label, I have thought something was one color and had others tell me it was something else (between certain greens and blues). I just did the brioche scarf and used a Sugarwheel my son had bought me for Christmas, there wasn't enough yarn to finish it so I chose some other colors out of my stash to finish it and thought they looked good until other's reactions and getting it out into the light and was surprised at how off I was as far as matching. I love cables too and patterns that tell you what color to use. I am giving the scarf to my youngest son who is very colorblind , when he was little everything was 'Peach'!

[@MarilynWiley]

I sure enjoy your videos love the story telling on this one learned something too. Wanted to say i was able to get my hands on a just like new book of the Big Book Of Knitting it is a really nice book haven’t gone clear thru it yet just got it a couple days ago. I do like my books. Thanks again for your teachings.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I have gotten rid of so many of my books, but not my knitting books! I keep accumulating more and more!

[@marilynpannell20]

I very much enjoyed your colorblind story (I once worked with a retired Baltimore City cop who had the inability to distinguish red and green - both looked brown to him), but when you said you can see green, and appeared to be indicating the sweater you are wearing, I was surprised. It clearly looks blue to me.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

It's not blue (I checked with my husband when someone mentioned a pair of mitts I showed on camera made with the leftovers from this yarn. They thought it was blue, as well, but it's not). I think it's a combination of the light in the room, and the problem cameras have detecting colors accurately, and possibly your screen display. It's a Madeline Tosh DK yarn, color Turquoise, so it's a blue-green, but it is definitely green. There's an area on the right arm that has a lot of pooling, which is more in that olive green shade that I don't care much for.

[@LoveoftheDarkFiberArts]

The color has a different name from green or blue. It's Teal.

[@CarrieMtn]

Super interesting

[@annabutler8254]

Late commenter, I recently found your KZbin. I'm curious about how you've progressed with colorwork choices (maybe the answer is in a video I haven't watched yet). There's some interesting color palette tools on the internet which may be useful or interesting to you, such as colorhunt.co . Thank you for all the tips and techniques and fun content!

[@kat1984]

I've had the new Vogue knitting book for at least one year, maybe 2. It's been helpful

[@daliamcclintock1491]

Vogue just had a good sale & I asked my husband to order it & put it aside for Christmas. Can’t wait!

[@BonJourBonJour123]

Color has fascinated me my entire life. I couldn’t imagine being colorblind. In fact, I’m the opposite. I am able to see differences in colors other can’t. My love of color lead to a life working in fashion. What matches and works in color is always in flux. Color combinations that were once fashionable are later considers boring and colors that would never work becomes chic. There are no guidelines. Go with what makes you happy. So much of color is about feeling. Don’t be shy about asking for a second opinion. In fashion nothing is done in a vacuum. It’s all by committee. Sweaters are made up four or five colorways and two are sent to market. It’s business and nobody takes it personally. Again, what makes you happy is important. You are the one who will spend countless hours with the yarn in your hands. What you make is a part of you and that what’s important.

[@nancypalmierievans6333]

Another great video! Fascinating story about color blindness! I have always wondered if people "see" the same colors or if, perhaps, they are perceived differently by each of us. Anyway, your technical skills and mathematical ability to "see" design and structure far out weigh putting colors together. You do a better job of that than you think.

[@fran3951]

Lessons learned as a quilter re: color, contrast & lighting: I'm taking a hiatus from quilting because I don't have a CFZ (cat free zone) right now. I also have the beginnings of cataracts, which are only an issue when I'm knitting at night or in low light and/or with dark yarns. But here are the two lessons I learned from quilting that have come in VERY handy as a knitter: 1) Only use "6500K", aka "full sprectrum", aka "daylight" light bulbs so you can see the "true" colors of your yarns. (Be SURE to check that the bulbs you purchase are labeled as 6500K because there are many bulbs out there that are labeled as "daylight" or "full spectrum" but if you check the measured color spectrum they are NOT 6500K.) These bulbs are available in fluorescent, CFL, incandescent & LED bulbs and also Ott lights (which were great 10 years ago, but now are just really expensive to replace on the older models of Ott lamps.) I use a 13 watt Leson (100 Watt equivalent) LED bulb in the adjustable clamp-on light mounted next to where I do most of my knitting, and I can knit black sock yarn at night with no trouble at all.. They are an up-front investment, but because they are LED's they will last much longer than other bulbs. (My first batch is over 1 year old with 12 hours/day use and are still going strong.) www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FYGDX3A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Warning: Once you get these bulbs and see the difference they make, you're probably going to want them in every location where you put on makeup or check the colors of the clothes you're going to wear. I'm gradually changing all of the bulbe in my homes over to these. 2) Contrast (more important for color work when you want to have either high contrast or low contrast between your yarns.): Quilters use a piece of red transparent plastic to review their colors for contrast. Looking through a red film turns all of the fabric colors into a "grey scale" and allows one to organize possible selections of fabrics solely by the difference of contrast between them (low, medium & high contrast.) This tool works equally well for analyzing the contrast between yarn colors. Most of these "contrast tools" are just a thin sheet of red plastic that you have to hold up to your eyes with one hand, but "somewhere" in one of my two homes, I have a pair of red plastic glasses that fit over my eyeglasses and do exactly the same thing, but are much easier to use. If anyone is interested in the red glasses, I'll dig out the information on where I purchased them. (But it could take a couple of days to find it/them. But since I'm getting ready to learn color work, I need to locate them anyway. LOL)

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Thank you, Fran! I do have an Ott light that I have on most of the time when I'm knitting at my desk. I realized exactly how helpful it was for me once when I took my knitting downstairs and thought I had messed up my stitch pattern by swapping yarns. They were obviously different under the Ott light, but not when I was next to the incandescent (or it might have been fluorescent) light. I have early, early cataracts, as well. I have a few tricks for distinguishing contrast, but my trouble is knowing whether or not colors match/can be used together because the way I perceive the colors is shifted.

[@fran3951]

I knew that my comment would not address any issues with color blindness (and I should have stated that clearly at the beginning.). But I thought an explanation about light bulbs and the use of red "contrast filters" MIGHT be helpful to others in the group. My hubby is always asking me to help him put together his "outfits" & I think I Finally have him trained to go into the bathroom where I have installed 6500K lights over the counter where I store my makeup (which I only wear when I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO, & those days are getting rarer every year. LOL)

[@shoelessmonk1941]

hi! that sure was interesting. i never really understood much of anything of color blindness. i don’t think i will get my February articles finished. so when March comes around i will march on to finish February knits. by April i may be clear. stacy

[@RoxanneRichardson]

Oh, I will not finish everything in February, that's for sure! There are two projects I'm not even touching this month, but will work on in the coming couple of months. It really has helped me not wander off to start something new, though!

[@sinnastevenson2302]

I know this is an old video, and I don't know if you see these. I have the opposite problem, where I see extra shades of colour. I use grey and gray to mean different shades, because I can't actually tell that something is gray/grey. It's blue, purple, yellow, or green. Warm gray, cool grey. I get corrected often about blues, purples, greens. Someone might insist it's blue, but I can see that it's teal. What's teal?? It's not blue. It's not green. Indigo. Cornflower. Lavender. Shades that straddle two colours, I can't place them as one or the other. So someone says that blue shirt or that green shirt, and I'm looking for a blue or green shirt. I never notice a teal one. My point is that I can hold two colours together and tell how close they are to one another. I was wondering if you could. Because I know there are theories?? I don't know what to call them. Ideas. Of how colours relate to one another by degrees on a colour wheel and how it affects whether they are good to pair. A perfect contrast, a perfect complement, a perfect blender. If you had a way to use those ideas, and you could find yarn by how close it is to the shades you've chosen mathematically, could that help?? But then, you would have to be able to tell they were at least reasonably close to the same shade.

[@bdgoins1]

I'm not a knitter and I'm not color blind I'm a quilter and dyslexic my husband is an aviation mechanic and if it wasn't for him helping me with shapes angles etc I would not be able to do a lot of what I want with fabric etc and when it comes to the computer I get so frustrated but anyway I enjoy your videos Thanks for posting take care

[@TheSuzberry]

Where can I find the Nora Gaughan pattern? And what is the color name?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

You can find links to the pattern and the yarn on my Ravelry project page: www.ravelry.com/projects/Rox/arris

[@nadiarogo4511]

It's 2022 and that Vogue book is out of print again. So I got the Russian edition (same illustrations, same everything). Win win since my mom can also use it now.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I just checked Amazon, and the edition that came out in 2018 is still in print and available.

[@nadiarogo4511]

@@RoxanneRichardson Thanks! I did try to order it from a big book store (i am in Germany) but they could not source it..

[@Notshortever]

Would a color wheel help in selecting color? For myself I have a difficult time with color, things like shade, value, hue, density, it’s all more than I can figure out. I especially need help telling black from blue. And what is grey anyway but light black? Rosemary

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I'm sure a color wheel would help, but I think it is more complicated than that, when it comes to using more than just a couple of colors. Someday, I will really attack this and figuring out how to learn what to learn.

[@martylittle5540]

I don't really like maroon and olive green. I'm more of a tangerine orange and a smoky blue.

[@patriciakinney4531]

Frog it and use yarn for another project like a blanket or something

[@wt30001]

Hello I am colorblind also, I wasn’t born this way. I lost my color vision & night vision about 30 years Go.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

How do you accommodate your lack of color vision in your knitting? Do you stick to textured knits?

[@kyouell]

At 27:34 you seem to be saying that you are wearing a green sweater in this video, but I see it as blue. Is it me? I wouldn't be surprised as the line between blue and purple seems to be in a different place for me than for most people I talk with.

[@kyouell]

Ooh! At 33:24 you held up the blue sweater and I could see the green. Fascinating!

[@LoveoftheDarkFiberArts]

I have perfect color vision, and even though there is the consideration for different screens and how the camera picked up the color, I don't see green. I see a deep teal color in the sweater that Rox is wearing.

[@fran3951]

What I see is a tonal yarn that goes from blue to deep blue/green (teal). I believe that because Rox can't see all of the green spectrum, what she sees is the blues.

[@lynntats]

Different monitors mash up colours in different ways. The same shot can look different on different computers.

[@theastewart6721]

Kath Youell It looks teal to me!😀

[@deeraines9416]

Oh my...i was born iin Witchita.

[@BeatlesFanSonia]

Do you knit and crochet or only knit?

[@RoxanneRichardson]

I mostly knit. I have very rudimentary crochet skills. My current Roaring '20s project includes mostly knitting with some crocheted bits (one reason I chose it as my next vintage sweater project)

[@amyweinstein1740]

sometimes we just have to throw out

[@ibyteuback]

You could over dye it

[@AftonGroveKnitter]

I believe, that in order for a girl to be color blind, her father has to be color blind, and her maternal grandfather has to be color blind.

[@RoxanneRichardson]

For a girl to be color blind, she has to receive an X chromosome from each parent that carries the gene for color blindness. The gene could be passed along the maternal line for generations without anyone showing up as color blind. The X chromosome my mother passed on to me was the one she got from her mother, who in turn got it from her father. The X chromosome a girl gets from her father is always going to be known. The X chromosome a child gets from his/her mother is based on 50/50 chance, same as a coin flip. My brother got the X chromosome my mother inherited from her father. He was not color blind, and neither is my brother. If he'd gotten the same X chromosome I'd received from my mother (again, 50/50 chance), he would have been color blind, and probably more severely so, as my mother carried the more severe form.