color blending

[RIPdotty]

i'm having some doubts with color blending on an afghan i've been working on for a year now. certain colors are very hard to come by in yarn, so i've just been trying to make due with what i can find. at any rate, i can't figure out the best way to change from greens to yellows. not too many yellow yarns available so not sure how to proceed. any comments/suggestions?

 

[magiccrochetfan]

I meant to also say that I admire  the amount of work you've put into this, all the swatches and working out the color gradations.  I have found that making something that includes the whole spectrum is daunting, I've tried and not been really successful.  You're not only including the whole spectrum but also shades of each color, and that is a major thing to work out with yarn---we can't really mix up our own colors like we could if we were painting w/ watercolors for example.  

Also that stitch pattern looks pretty labor-intensive!  

[bgs]

You did a fantastic job.  

[TexasPurl]

That's a beautiful blanket!

[greyhoundgrandma]

Very pretty! The colors look great!

[Granny Square]

Thanks for sharing the finished piece, that is gorgeous.  

[RIPdotty]

Just wanted to post a photo of the completed afghan.  Sadly I still have some loose ends to hide, but that hasn't stopped me from using it already

[magiccrochetfan]

that is very pretty!  just those colors would make a nice blanket as well.  

[RIPdotty]

Gotten through the Yellows and into the green-blues.  I like the changes compared to earlier in the afghan, but I think If i do a similar afghan I'll stick with only one yellow section. And MUCH simpler color scheme.  Thanks again for all the help! 

[RIPdotty]

Unfortunately i'm still not very good with figuring out stitch height/width to properly estimate the number of rows to complete an afghan, thus properly plan out a complicated design, especially of this magnitude.  I was just kind of winging it so when i got to orange I measured it and just going back through the pattern wouldnt have been enough to make the afghan wide enough.   So again I'm just winging it   I think i'm going to switch the group of gold and yellow, worst case i don't like the gold I can rip it out and move onto green but keep the yellow.  There is definitely more contrast with these 2 groups of 'yellows' so I think it'll work this time.  

Unfortunately it's a time guzzler of a pattern, but I really like it.  I made another one that was no where near as complex. 

 

[magiccrochetfan]

Dotty, i love your swatches, they are just adorable!  the way they are laid out reminds me of a box of crayons 

OK, so...if you want  a lot of contrast where you change from green to yellow, then i would leave the gold.  I think yellow-orange is about the best way to get a "heavy" yellow, at least given the constraints we have in buying yarn because not every imaginable color is available.  

Will it not bother you to have the ends not be mirror images of each other?  (It would bother me since up till now it's all been a mirror image of the first half of the afghan.  I would end it with the mirror image of what I began with.  If extra length is needed, I'd add rows at each end in the dark brown, in plain stitches not the zigzag stitch.) 

[Granny Square]

Oops, we were greying your blanket at the same time.  Here's your swatches

 

[RIPdotty]

That black & white trick would have been helpful in the beginning. 

[Granny Square]

FWIW, here is a greyscale of your yellows.  

[RIPdotty]

Here's my set of swatches I made to help pick out the colors.  I have them for all of Red heart, loops & threads impeccable, herrschnerrs, caron, caron simply soft, big twist, and some RH with Love yarn.

[RIPdotty]

Thank you for the response.  I did actually want a lot of color weight difference between the first and last of each group.  Each set of 4 colors goes from heavy to light and slowly transitions through the color spectrum, or so that was the thought behind it.  The gold seems off to me more for the reason that gold is more orange yellow than yellow.  I tried earlier in the afghan to transition through yellow like all the other colors, but it ended up more like a big blur.  I also couldn't really figure out how to transition from yellow through orange so I ended up so going back through the pattern in reverse but I need another 30" to complete it.  I decided to redo the yellow to make it work better, then go back through the greens (instead of doing orange) until I get enough rows. 

Here's a picture of the full color transition, i started with browns, going through golds to yellow to get it going but I didn't want to include brown again, just thought it was a cool transition.  I also really don't like the yellow green set of 4 in the beginning either so I was dropping it.

[magiccrochetfan]

Interesting question!  I really enjoy color and choosing colors and playing with combinations....but it can also be a lot of work and extremely frustrating!  Even when I think I've got colors that go together well, sometimes once i crochet them next to each other, they just don't work well together.  Since color is so important to me in making things, I've tried to learn more so I can be happier with my color combos.  I read some things by Laura Bryant  and watched some video from her, she was on the Knitting Daily tv show a few times talking about color.  The concept of "color weight" really helped me a lot.  https://www.amazon.com/Artful-Color-Mindful-Knits-Definitive/dp/1933064269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519676767&sr=8-1&keywords=laura+bryant+color&dpID=61wmPjF3aBL&preST=_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch   If you look at the preview there, you can read a little about weight.  

In the first photo,  there is a lot of difference between the very light green and the dark gold.  the gold is "heavy" and the green is very "light".  The best way i've found to tell the weight of a color is to make a photo and change it to black and white.  the lightest colors will appear white and the darkest will be dark gray.  Did you want that much contrast, or did you want it  to blend?   edit to add---I have found yellow to be a hard color to work with, it usually seems to really jump out at me in anything I try to use it in.  Other people will like the finished item, but i can't help seeing the yellow as not fitting in.  

Are your photos of 2 different sections of the same afghan?