Colorway Chronicles: Brick

Another color I find challenging to work with is red. I love the color red. It has such a rich and varied spectrum, however I find blue-reds are more common, easier to achieve and more prevalent than yellow-reds.  What do I mean by this and why does it matter?

Red is a composite dye, which means it is made up of other colors. Magenta is the primary base, however varying amounts of blue, yellow and black are added to this to get red. Yellow is a weaker pigment, and it takes a lot of yellow to make an impact. Too much yellow in the mix and, of course, you get orange. Because of this, and of course, economic factors, most reds tend to land more in the blue-based tones than the yellow. Which is all well and fine, they are very pretty, however, if you are an individual with yellow undertones in your skin (such as myself) the blue under toned reds are simply not as flattering when worn around your face.  This is a fashion challenge many people face - we love red, but most reds don't love us.

Brick is my answer. I worked with a yellow based red that had slightly orange tendencies and warmed the tone while adding depth to the overall color by adding a yellow-green. (Weird right?) What I got in the end is a rich tonal yellow-red that varies from a rust, through red and on to a maroon. It immediately made me think of factory fresh red bricks. I love this colorway, and am seriously considering a fingering weight sweater in this colorway.