As a kid, my morning dreams were pushed aside by the reassuring clonking of pipes and the sputtering and hissing of cast iron radiators as they pushed an even warmth through our rambling old house. After a cold day of skiing I would press myself up against a radiator until my long underwear felt like it was going to burn my skin. The cats and dogs nestled up against them too.

I wish I’d thought to paint the radiator in my bedroom in a gradient of warm colors. But I would’ve reversed the colors so that the hot red was at the end of the radiator where the steam pipe entered it and became warm first and then fade the color out to yellow at the cooler far end.

Via: Pattern People 

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I’m on my way to The Outdoor Retailer trade show this week. I am excited to see all the latest and greatest outdoor gear and clothing that will be appearing in stores next fall, and to see sales samples of my various designs. I have a schedule filled with meetings with clients – current and potential, fabric vendors and industry friends.

I’ve been asked to be a judge for Project OR a student apparel design competition, similar to the reality show Project Runway. Students are handed a design brief the first morning of the show and then must conceive, design and sew a garment meeting the specifications of the design brief in just three days. It’s a great way to introduce young designers to the Outdoor market and vice versa. I’ll let you knoe how this goes when I return.

More photos by Emmanuel Coupe 

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Here’s what Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute® has to say about the choice, “sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it. Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.

Over the past several years, orange has grown in popularity and acceptance among designers and consumers alike. A provocative attention-getter, Tangerine Tango is especially appealing in men’s and women’s fashion. Fashion designers featured in the PANTONE Fashion Color Report Spring 2012, including Tommy Hilfiger, Nanette Lepore, Elie Tahari and Adrienne Vittadini, are incorporating this attractive orange into their spring collections. A fun, lively take on a traditional autumnal hue, Tangerine Tango will surely carry through to fall fashion as well.

Energize interior spaces with Tangerine Tango patterned home accessories. Pillows, bedspreads and tabletop accessories in this high-impact hue add spice to any room. Or incorporate Tangerine Tango appliances and personal electronics for an unexpected pop of color. Looking for an inexpensive way to perk up your home? Paint a wall in Tangerine Tango for a dynamic burst of energy in the kitchen, entryway or hallway.”

I for one like this bright shade quite a bit. I painted my kitchen cabinets this color a few years ago and am still living happily with it. What do you think about Tangerine Tango? Would you wear it or splash it on your walls?

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This works well for me, but it’s not possible for those non-designers without Photoshop or Illustrator or similar software. My friend Judy introduced me to a fun and addicting alternative way of working with color palettes using your own photos called Kuler.

Anyone can sign up and access Kuler on line for free. You pinpoint the colors that you want to highlight in a photo that you have downloaded and voila! they show up in the color bar below it. You can change the colors as many time as you like and then save your palettes to your personal folder or share them. Believe me, you can spend a lot of time playing around with this app! This is what it looks like.

You can also experiment with different analogous, complementary and compound color combinations of your choice as shown below.

Color Scheme Designer is another fun site that also allows you to experiment with various color combinations. It looks like this:

Does anyone have any other interactive color sites that are fun to fool around with? Let me know what you think of these sites.

TODAY is the last day to enter Poppy Gall Design Studio Thank You & Give Away. Click here for details and good luck!

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The deadline for Poppy Gall Design Studio Give Away is December 1^st. Click here for details. Just entering a comment here makes you eligible. Thank you for participating!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the 2nd Anniversary Give Away for a chance to win something designed by Poppy Gall Design Studio!

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I reined in my yarn enthusiasm and knit up a lot of what I had. I resisted setting foot into yarn shops. I made a nice dent in my hoard. One day, two years ago, everything changed. I entered a swanky knitting store and was overwhelmed by how much the knitting world had changed while I was ignoring it. There I found tantalizing blends of alpaca, silk and mohair in sumptuous textures and delicious colors! How could I resist knitting up a few things using these lovely yarns? My resolve was blown.

The multi-colored and subtly variegated yarns held a special allure. One can no longer only associate variegated yarns with hideous cheap acrylic. The new breeds are truly luscious. As a dyer, I was curious about how color is applied to these many-hued skeins. I asked a number of dyers at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival about the ins and outs of “hand painting” yarns and gleaned a rough idea of how to go about it.

Last Saturday morning after looking through my color palettes for some color inspiration I dug out my dyes and dusty dye pot and five random skeins of natural colored wool and launched into my first attempt at hand painting yarn. It’s a lot more time consuming than dying solid colored yarn and makes a lot more mess. But I loved mixing the colors and applying them to the yarn. I am surprised and pleased with the results of my messy morning!

The “painted” skeins look a little scary-Grateful-Dead-tie-dye-ish in this state but once the colors merge in the dye pot and the skeins are re-wound the stripes disappear.

Once they  are-wound the tie-dyed look disappears.

Finished hand painted skeins. There are two different types of yarn, and each skein is slightly different from the other.

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