Thursday, February 18, 2010

Third colour warp

This has been a fun exercise to be weaving plain weave with different colours. I have done 3 different warps, I only needed to do one but I enjoyed the different colour settings.
Here are the 3 warps together in one photo:
I have finished the samples and the last warp samples look like this: (right side before washing, left after washing and pressing)
This sample is weft like warp.
Here the weft is similar to the warp colours but just a bit darker (the light green warp is yellow weft)
Again, the weft colours in a just darker shade than the warp colours. The green warp is a variegated green to yellow weft, this has become stripy in the weaving.
Here the weft colours are much darker, though the purple warp is a warmer red purple.
Here the weft colours are paler than the warp colours.
Weft colours are dark and pale grey, black and white.
Another thick/thin sample. The thick yarn is cotton chenille.

I've found it very interesting to see how the warp changes colour with the different coloured weft yarns.
I will now get all the samples from the 3 warps organized together with bundles of the different coloured yarns used. The next lesson is this Saturday, the second of five lessons. So, looking forward to the next assignment.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Second colour warp

I've finished the second colour warp with the "cold" colours. I managed to weave 9 samples out of it. Marian let me know that I had gotten the sample with thick yarn not right, I should have used thick-thin alternately. Glad to hear, so that I could do it correct this time. You'll see when I upload the sample.
It really is an eye opener weaving these colour samples. Although it is plain weave, it shows how the colours connect with one and other.
All photos show left side after washing/pressing and right side before washing.
This sample is weft like warp. There are one and a half (the end of the warp could only manage a half sample) more of these colour samples.
Here, the weft colours are the warp colours from the first warp.
In this sample the weft colours are similar but different from the warp colours.
Here some lighter colours in the weft.
A mix of light and dark weft colours
Another mix of dark and light but also warm and cooler colours.
This is the thick/thin sample, leaving a thin one out in the middle of the colour blocks,  showing the other colour in the warp. The thick yarn is linen.

My next lesson is coming Saturday so hopefully enough time to weave another warp mixing warm and cold colours together. I would like to investigate how these samples will turn out.
I have discovered that there is a tendency towards similar colours in my stash, so I will look for different colours to add to my stash next time I'm buying more of this yarn. I'm using the Venne cotton 34/2 as there are so many colours to choose from and it weaves up very nice. Still having problems getting the weaving square with this second warp, though it went better than the first one. The sett is 12threads/cm, which should be ok for plain weave.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Colour samples

I've made some scans of the different samples of the colour warp. It is all plain weaving.
This is weft colour as warp. Can you spot the beads at the top right? I gave each sample some beads so that I could identify them after washing. The shrinking all over is not even strangely enough. May be this has everything to do with me not weaving consistently! I find it very difficult to weave "square". The above sample was most square of all.
This colour sample is woven I've woven six times + half as that was all my warp had left in the end. I have washed all the samples apart from this "half"sample.
Another sample:
was woven with different colours and as you can see, it is not "square" woven, it is longer than it is wide.
This sample has a much thicker weft yarn. I had some linen yarn in 4 different colours. Being linen it was much harder getting a good edge, the yarn was far to stiff. But as sample it is ok, I'll probably frame it anyway together with the other samples, making a sample book.
It will be nice to have a book of colour samples at the end of the course, seeing how colours interact together. May be, I'll discover that I like colours I never thought I would have liked using, as I tend to use blues,  purples and mauves a lot.
My next warp is green, blue, brown and purple! I'll be using as many colours as I can in the different samples, giving me an idea what would work with these colours.

Colour

Parallel to my deflected double weaving course I also go to a colour course also given by Marian Stubenitsky.
Our first assignment was to make some moodboards with colours that we liked and disliked with warm and cold colours. Sure a different way to look at colours!
Next assignment is to weave with colours, again, a colour that we like and one we dislike and some complimentary colours. When I had a choice of all the colours in front of me, I found that I liked a lot of colours, making it hard to choose. I made a few possible sets but in the end made a decision. Looking back, they are more towards the warm colours that I went for.
We are weaving extra samples so that we can exchange them at the next lesson.
I have finished the warp but I've made a second warp with different colours so that I can do some more colour weaving before the next lesson next week.
The second warp is more towards the cold colours. I only realised this after I had finished warping this warp!
I look forward to mixing colours with this next warp.  As I have made my extra samples already for the exchange, I can now play more with this warp.
Here is the first warp, most samples are the same (weft like warp), apart from one with different colours and one with a different thickness yarn:

Post arrived today!

Today the post brought this:
In December Laura Fry posted about gaining an Ashford dealership and was celebrating by giving away one of her t-shirts. Lucky me :-)
Thank you Laura!

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Life's ups and downs

Not much weaving just now but busy with arrangement for the cremation this coming Friday of my father's wife who passed away last Sunday. She was 90 and has had a good life apart from having had Alzheimer in her last years (we had the good fortune that she still recognized us most of the time  to the end).
It is sad to see how heartbroken my father is though.
That's the down side of life just now.

But when you find a parcel like this after coming home from a busy day:
then that is the up side of life!!! What a lovely surprise.
This fleece has travelled far. It is half merino/half romney. It's a lovely colour grey/brown and brown/black. I look forward to be spinning this lovely fleece. (After I have finished spinning the last North Ronaldsay that I've had since we did a fibre challenge with the OLG in 2004!!! I had received 5 different colours NR and I spun 4 so far, but still have not finished the last colour. When all is finished, it will make a nice weaving project.)