Are you a digital lover? Or are you like me, holding on to your pen and paper for all you’re worth? As lovely as it is to plan a new project on paper, I’ve realised that there’s also a place in my life for digital planning, especially when it comes to knitting plans. These days I enjoy using Pinterest for planning colours for my projects!

Let me show you how.

I had quite a bit of my life happen before the internet came along and maybe that’s why I’ve been slow to adopt a digital life.

I’m a tactile maker, so nothing pleases me more than yarn squishing, a new journal or piles of freshly laundered fabric ready for a new project. I’ve always preferred to make plans with paper and pen and cut-outs from magazines and my early attempts at digital planning left me feeling a bit lost.

But, I persevered!

And low and behold, to my surprise and after lots of experimenting, I’ve come up with a few digital solutions that work for me.

I’ve discovered that Pinterest is a great tool when I’m working out colour combinations for my knitting.

Especially when I'm working with dyers to develop special colours for new designs.

This is how to do it:

• find a time you won't be interrupted, make a hot cuppa, put on some good music (or enjoy the silence) and create a new Pinterest board';
• start by scrolling, fairly randomly, popping images onto the board that "feel good", trying not to think too hard about it.
• if you find yourself falling down a colour/texture/theme rabbit hole that can be a good sign that you're on to something;
• once you've added a couple of dozen images to your board, scroll back through and delete anything that isn't singing to you anymore;
• don't agonise over it; if it's not a "hell yes", then it's a "delete". Sometimes you might find that you'll delete a ton of images but in those cases, you may also find that you start getting a much clearer picture of what you want;
• then, head off again, hunting for more images. This time you'll most likely be a little clearer about what you're looking for;
• it's really helpful to follow the "recommended" or "similar" suggestions that Pinterest gives you at the bottom of the page;
• try to relax, breathe deeply and lose yourself in the process. It's rather lovely spending a bit of time creating a collection of beautiful things!
• there's no magic number that you're aiming for but about 6-10 images is a good amount. Not too overwhelming, but enough to give you a sense of what you love right now and usually enough to get some good colour ideas from.

Have a go! I think you’ll be surprised at how simple and useful Pinterest can be to narrow down your choices and make sense of the jumble of colours floating around in your head.

Don’t forget, when you’re done … print out your final board of photos, or screenshot it, and take it with you to the yarn shop … no more dithering confusion over colours!