The Color Red (and the Pursuit of Joy)

What little thing in life brings you inexplicable joy?

Some of you might have guessed that I love the color red. After all, it’s literally in my business name. The business name actually comes from the red clay soil in my area, but did I use it as an excuse to make all kinds of business-related things my very favorite shade of not-too-light not-too-burgundy definitely-not-tomato red? Yes.

Thing is, I can’t actually explain why I love red so much. That drives me mildly crazy, because I like having an explanation for everything. I just have to know why. I could tell you why I chose to pair two different stitch patterns together, or why I wrote a pattern the way I did; even if it’s not a justification to myself or somebody else, my brain ticks on the theory and the reason behind everything.

But my love of red doesn’t have an apparent reason. None of the Eastern or Western cultural associations with the color red—good luck, romance, power, or war—are things red makes me think of. As I talked about in a recent interview with Malabrigo Yarns, I tend to design based on gut and emotion first; apparently my taste in color runs the same way, except I’ve never progressed to the stage of hard, technical assessment. I can’t even explain what exact emotions I feel when I work with or wear red. Red makes me happy, and that’s as complicated as it gets.

As I continue to slowly bounce back from my creative burnout season, the inexplicable bothers me less and less. When excitement about my work was scarce, I had to focus on the experience of joy when it appeared, rather than on dissecting and overanalyzing it. Not only that, but I couldn’t just “do my thing” and have joy appear; I had to look for it.

Recently I cast on a test knit for Wool & Pine Designs—it’s a fun pattern and will be a lovely wardrobe piece when it’s done, but the big motivator to work on it was the color. This dark, rich, blackened shade from Madelinetosh and all its moody glory make me want to squeak just a little bit. I almost cast on in olive green instead (which would also be pretty, don’t get me wrong), but would you just look at that red. A couple of times I’ve felt guilty about knitting on this instead of my own design samples, but for once in my life I’m shushing the guilt. The samples are still getting done and nothing’s on fire. And I can afford to stop and soak in a little joy where I can find it.

So here I am with an existential ramble, and photos of all the red things I’ve made over the last few years, just because I can. In the words of Dr. Seuss, these things are fun; and fun is good. I hope they bring you a little bit of happiness today.