Have you ever experienced a slight discrepancy between the colors you imagined in your mind and the colors of the actual woven piece?

Also, do the colors look different depending on the colors next to each other?

For example, in my experience, when brown and light gray are next to each other, light gray looks light blue. Also, when green and cream colors are next to each other, cream color looks like light green.

The combinations of colors are infinite, and not only the combination but also the quantity of the color will give different impressions.
For example, suppose you have a color combination A and B. If you use the same amount of both colors, your weaving piece will look different than if you use more of A and less of B.

It is really difficult to think about color.

Weaving also takes time, so if possible, we would like to see a color combination that is somewhat close to the finished piece in advance.

In this article, I would like to put the grid design aside for now and explain the process of creating colors close to the colors of your weft threads in Adobe Illustrator.

For previous articles, please refer to the following links:

• [1] For basic information and basic operations of Illustrator, Adobe Illustrator for Weaving Grid Design
  
  
• [2] For information on how to create a grid template, Creating a Grid Template in Adobe Illustrator
  
  
• [3] For information on how to import a rough sketch, Placing a Rough Sketch in Adobe Illustrator
  
  
• [4] For information on how to create a rough grid design, Coloring on the Grid in Adobe Illustrator
  
  
• [5] For information on how to adjust the grid design, Adjust Grid Design for Easy Weaving (Work in Adobe Illustrator)

This article will discuss the following items:

1. Match the colors of weft threads you have with the colors to be registered in the Swatches
2. Organize the Swatches panel
3. Save the colors registered in the Swatches as a Library
4. Open the Swatch Library into your grid design file

In a previous article, “Coloring on the Grid in Adobe Illustrator,” the Color Guide and Swatches panels were used to register colors in a simplified manner.

This time, I would like to register colors as close as possible to the colors of your weft threads.

Follow the steps below:

1. Prepare the weft yarn you want to register in front of your computer.

2. In Illustrator, select New from the File menu to open a blank artboard.
   
   
3. Select Color Guide and Swatches from the Window menu to display their respective panels.
   
   
4. Select a color from the Swatches panel or the Color Guide that closely matches the color of the weft you have.
   In my sample, I selected green from the Swatches panel.

5. The green I just selected will appear in the upper left frame of the Color Guide panel. Pull down the Harmony Rules to see the color scheme guide, and if there is a green color that more closely matches the actual weft color, select that color group.

6. From the selected color group, I selected a slightly more yellowish green by double-clicking it.

7. The same yellow-green color will appear in the Swatches panel in the fill frame. Double-click this color.

8. The Color Picker appears.

9. I put the actual weft in front of the screen and looked at it, it needed a little more yellow. Move the slider in the center slightly toward yellow.
   
   You will see a preview of the color after the change in the upper half of the rectangular frame to the right of the slider. The lower half is the color before the change.

10. Looking at the weft, it is a bit darker yellowish green, so this time I moved the black circle in the large frame on the left side by dragging it slightly downward.
    
    The preview has changed again.
    
    Click OK to confirm once.

11. The changed color is now applied to the fill in the Swatches panel.
    
    Just to be sure, I would like to take another look at the color, so double-click again on the frame of this fill to display the Color Picker again.

12. Alternating between the actual weft and the screen, I still needed a bit more yellow tint, so I made some adjustments and would like to finalize this. Click OK.

13. Now I would like to register this green. Click on New Swatch, give it an easy-to-understand name, and click OK.
    
    I have chosen a name that combines the name of the color and the brand name of the weft.

14. Repeat the above steps, alternating between the weft and the screen, registering colors as close as possible.
    The following screenshot shows 5 colors registered.

Now, I would like to organize the registered colors for easy use in the future.

1. In the Swatches panel, select the first green color you registered and click New Color Group.

2. Here I will create a folder for each weft brand. Enter the brand name and click OK.

3. The selected green color has been moved to a new color group folder.

4. In the sample, I also registered another weft for another brand, so I created another folder for the color group and moved the weft colors into each folder.
   
   Watch the video below to see the steps.

5. If you have time, it would be a good idea to register all the wefts you will be using in the future.
   
   I have registered the weft colors for each brand as follows and stored them in their respective color group folders.

Next, save the registered colors as a swatch library.

1. Click on the menu in the upper right corner of the Swatches panel and select Save Swatch Library as AI.
   AI stands for Adobe Illustrator.

2. Save the swatch library in an easy-to-understand location, such as your document folder or on the desktop, with an easy-to-understand name.

3. Save the blank file you are currently opening as a backup just in case.
   
   Select Save from the File menu.
   Similarly, save the file in an easy-to-understand location with an easy-to-understand name.
   
   After saving, you can close the file.

Now, open the grid design file that have been adjusted in the previous article and open the swatch library that we just saved.

1. Select Open from the File menu to open the previously created grid design file.
   
   
2. Select Open Swatch Library > Other Library from the menu in the upper right corner of the Swatches panel.

3. Select and open the swatch library file we just saved.

4. A swatch library panel is now opened, separate from the Swatches panel.
   
   If you want to modify the colors in the swatch library, open the swatch library file that was saved in step 2 of the above procedure 3 “Save the colors registered in the Swatches as a Library“, modify it, and overwrite it.
   
   Then reopen the swatch library file in the grid design file.

Now we have registered colors in the Swatch Library that are as close as possible to the colors of the weft threads.

In the next article, I will explain how to apply the colors registered this time to the grid design, to think about the color scheme, and to confirm the image of the finished pieces.

Thank you for reading to the end!