Probably a stupid question.

[iamshadow]

What's 'colorway'?

I've seen the term bandied about on knitting comms, and on Ravelry, but I can't find anything that says exactly what it is, specific to knitting/yarn. I did try Googling, but none of the top hits were clear.

Can anyone give me an explanation?

Comments

[kuri]

I've always thought of it as the gradient of colours in a variegated yarn. (I.e. if a hank of yarn is dyed orangey at one end and reddish at the other you'd have an orange-red colourway, but it would probably have a cutesy name, like Marigold, or something)

[indywind]

I also understand it as how you refer to the color of something that isn't all one color--handpainted, dyed with a gradient, flecked, patterned, marled or something like that.

[tephra]

It's a carry over from the textile industry, where one pattern of fabric will be printed use a variety of different sets of color. Each set is a colorway. It doesn't make much sense to use colorway when talking about a solid color, but for variegated colors of sweaters with colorwork using colorway is a shorthand for listing out all the colors used, generally by using the most dominant color. A sweater that is predominantly shades of brown but also has melon and turquoise would be one with a brown colorway for instance.

[iamshadow]

Okay.... so, something that had a strong blue colour throughout, but also had purples, yellows, reds, etc. highlighting it would be a blue colorway? Like my scarf?

[tephra]

The purple seems stronger to me, but yes, blue or blue-purple. Especially if you knit another one with the same pattern but in a different set of colors. :) Colorway as a term started for things that were identical except for their colors. A good example is Knit Picks "Little Bubbles" baby sweater kits, there are pink, blue, and neutral colorways.

[iamshadow]

Ah, that's just the photograph. If I showed you a close-up of the yarn, you'd see that it's made of two strands, both of which morph, but 95% of the time, one of them is sort of a dark denim blue.

Thank you!

[delia]

I always thought it was the name of the color. Not just red or what have you, but Firecracker Heather or Maroon; what the yarn brand named the color. At least, that's how I use it.

[clare_dragonfly]

Yeah, that's kinda what I do too. Since (according to Ravelry at least) all yarns have a colorway, even solid-color yarns, there should be some way to distinguish it from mere "color"!

[stitchy_stitchy]

I've seen it used that way - usually in association with multicolor yarns, where the yarn company or dyer will give a name to a particular color combination.

[mu]

that's how I tend to use it too :)