Purple is a Neutral……Really!

Zambesi by Fleece Artist. The colour is called Blomidon! Now that is purple!

You may have picked up on the fact that purple is one of my favorite colours.  It, like black, is a staple of my wardrobe and I consider it a neutral, really.  Depending on the tone purple goes with greens and browns, pinks and teals, and always goes with black.  So doesn’t that mean that it is a neutral – it goes with everything!  Well, everything I own.  What is your neutral?  Do you have a colour that you prefer, one that goes with everything in your wardrobe, your neutral colour!?

A purple project that I hope to get finished for this fall – I only started it a couple of years ago is knit with Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze in Dewberry!  Eerie is a delicate lace overblouse that I am adding purple beads to.  It will be gorgeous when finished – or so I think.  I am also designing a top-down purple sweater in Unisono, you can see a definite theme developing here!

My Eerie in Progress!

My love affair with purple started when I was a teenager.  We moved to Kelowna, into a new house, close to the beach and I got the room with the purple velvet drapes and purple carpet.

Check out those drapes - the flocked paper - mid seventies perfection!

This room was mine, I could decorate it any way I wished – as long as I kept the purple drapes and carpet!  I found some flocked velvet wallpaper – the stripes are the flocked velvet and some purple patterned fabric for the little couch my mother offered and the room was perfect.  It was my haven for three and half years and it began my love of the colour purple.

Cockle Shell Corner

I have picked up the Cockle Shell pattern wrap again.  Last night I finished the first repeat of the pattern all the way around and I really like the way it is turning out!  I am working with the Fleece Artist Maidenhair and Montague again, such gorgeous yarns to knit with and they take the dyes so well!

Detail

Like the Victorian Falls Wrap I am working this piece from the outside in.  One of the advantages of working the wrap from the outside in is the availability of curved edges that are knit that way.  With a traditional edging you get lots of points and diamonds, but curves are hard to come by.  I like curves and soft edges, organic shapes that move quietly and naturally from one to the other.  Points and straight lines are also organic, crystalline shapes are the most beautiful of examples, but they move very differently.  When I doodle I doodle curves that flow from one to the next!  My mind jumps from point to point and seldom moves in a straight line – just ask my husband!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

99 thoughts on “Purple is a Neutral……Really!”

    1. I had a Shih Tzuh, LILY, that absolutely loved purple, violet, and lilac. She would claim anything of that color as her own. If she had her creative way, I bet she would have a star where everything was purple, even the frogs.

    1. Hi Judy,

      Thank-you for the compliment! Knitting is what I love to do! And purple is the best colour ever. We are our own subgroup -purple lover’s. I think that we might just think at little differently!

      Happy Knitting!

      Lynete

  1. Purple is my future wife’s favorite color. She loves a good dark purple and will wear it with anything, especially with black. She has some stuff that’s light purple with green, dark purple with a burgundy, and a medium purple design on a torquiose shirt that comes out really nice. She’d love your wardrobe if it has as much purple as you suggest.

    ~RCS

  2. Hi Judy,

    One more thing, I am not sure if you notice it or not, but one of your photos (the one you are sitting on the couch) appears to showoff your pink panties as well (especially when you click on it to view it the actual size)… i think you might want to change it, or do some alteration (so that it does not appear that clear to viewers)…

    anyway, nice post on purple. we all here (me, wife and kids)…. love purple sooo much!

  3. Watching HGTV, I recently learned that purple can, indeed, be a neutral–especially certain shades of it. Love what you are doing with the purple sweater! I too have a purple passion!

    And congrats on Freshly Pressed!

    Kathy

    1. Thank-you Kathryn,

      Thank-you for the comments on neutral purple!
      I was stunned when I got home and saw all the comments! It took me a minute to realize that it was fresh pressed that brought you all here!

      Lynette

  4. Purple is the best colour ever – it’s just soo cool! My university’s logo is that exact shade you’re using btw (I’m very lucky to have a campus hoodie that is my fave colour – bliss! :D).
    Your style of knitting is amazing! I love the pattern being made through your sweater so far, and the cockle shell wrap is pretty sweet too 😀
    Awesome blog! 😀

  5. Purple is my favorite color as well. At the moment I have a soft lilac purple shade of nail polish on with gold glitter on the tips and I can say purple and gold are lovely together too. =D I was planning to redecorate my bedroom with pretty purple paint involved, however plans have changed and there will be a new house involved in a couple of years so I’m putting that on hold and saving money for the house. Once the new house is in the picture though you can bet I’ll be painting my new room the purple I’d already picked out for my current room. Love purple! <3

  6. Hello, just stumbled upon your site from the WordPress log-in page, and oh my goodness, your pieces are soo beautiful!! That cockle shell corner piece is unbelievably delicate and gorgeous…do you sell them anywhere? It would make a beautiful collar to wear over other tops!
    You have a new fan 🙂
    x Liivi
    @magnoliahillint

  7. I love purple. But I find that my neutral color would have to be denim. Everything works with denim. Denim jeans, shorts, jackets … I just love denim. Looking at your knitting, I must say that you are really good! I once learned how to do the basics, and started a scarf. Then I forgot how to cast on and cast off, and it took me about two more years to remember how before I finished that scarf. You wrap, however, I am sure will turn out beautifully!

    1. Thank-you Sofia for the encouragement! I’m about to attach the sea-stars to the stole! I am very happy with the results so far!

      AS for your own knitting – just like anything else the more you do the better you get!

      Lynette

  8. My neutral color has to be blue. I have so much blue in my closet and I can never get enough. It’s probably my favorite color. That and green. 🙂 But purple is so hard to find anymore, so I don’t know.

    1. Thank-you for your interest! I must say the “country house” looks like a cool place to live.
      As a knitter you understand the concept of a stash – that is where purple currently predominates!

      Lynette

  9. my neutral is yellow haha. even the horrible ones that make me look slightly jaundiced. i especially love obnoxiously bright sunshine yellow, which i accent with charcoal grey or dark brown. your knitting is lovely 🙂

  10. Beautiful knitting, so delicate! I too am a lover of purple. My sister proclaimed this morning how much she loves wearing Blue and Red…why? Because she loves purple, and wearing those two colors together is kind of like tricking your eyes into thinking it’s purple, only you’re sporting something different.

  11. I wholeheartedly agree. I wear purple nearly every day. Well every day when I actually think about it since both of my pairs of glasses are purple. One is a funky warm purple and the other is an extremely dark cool purple that most people take for black, which is my “conservative” look.

    Another sign that purple is a neutral is that it never seems to go out of style. I’ve been wearing different shades of purple for years now and I’ve noticed that, regardless of the whims of fashion, there is never a shortage of purple clothes available on the racks.

  12. I love purple, for a while I moved around with colors. At one point orange was my favorite color, and then light and kind of bright blue was my favorite color but now I have stuck on purple. I do have to agree that purple and black are a great combo! Most things in my wardrobe are gray or black and I have some purple flowers and other things to pump up the gray and black.

    One last thing, I just found your blog and I’m in love. Looking forward to future posts.

  13. Purple and various shades of lavender have been my favorites since I was a teen also. have you seen purple and orange? there is a certain way to combine them that is just stunning. I wish I had time to learn to knit.

  14. Purple goes with many colours – I agree with that but I don’t think it goes all that well with darker shades of blue. Blue and Purple are the colours of a bruise after all. But it’s cool you can knit – my favourite clothes are knit cardies.

  15. Recently I started taking a closer look at purple and I agree, if you work it right, it does go with everything. I have noticed hand washable black fabrics, even in cold water, the color runs and the water turns an interesting shade of eggplant. Lovely work you do, congrats on your success and Fresh Pressed!

  16. Congratulations with the FP! Yes, purple!!! And green, love those two together. I thought it was just me, I’m happy to see that more people like that combination. And black goes with anything, ofcourse. Nice knitting work by the way! 🙂

  17. I think my neutral is beige. I have lots of things in my wardrobe that are beige/brown and they just go with everything! But I agree with you: purple is neutral!

  18. Another fan of purple, although purple, RED RED RED RED, and gold are my things — purple and fire colors. I’ve heard of other colors called “blue” and “green,” but I suspect they are rumors. 🙂

  19. Black, gray, purple, and blue are my neutrals…although my bruises usually turn green, which I find kind of entertaining. I pull out orange and silver and pretend those are neutrals, too.

  20. I need to learn how to knitt, it’s so beautiful. Purple and teal are my staple colors (along with black) but I never really thought about what I’d condiser a neutral. Prolly pale pink, I can’t think of anything it doesn’t go with including orange and that’s sometimes a challenge.

    Silver is my favorite color, all the jewelry I buy myself is silver, white gold, or platinum since I think it goes with everything.

  21. I have a pair of purple vintage sunglasses and I wear them with absolutely everything. They are huge and round and I get lots of compliments, especially when I wear them with other bright colors like red or yellow. Purple is indeed a neutral!

    1. Some friend! A colour is what you make of it, as is anything we do in life!
      Purple is the colour of royalty – because only royalty could afford it to dye their clothing. Purple is the colour of a clear night sky illuminated by moonlight!

      Let purple speak for itself!

      Lynette

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