Sunny Day

 

pastel tints colour gamp

We seem to have arrived at 'spring'.  The plum trees in the back yard are in blossom, although I don't see many bees.  

I am supposed to be working on the next Power Point, which is on Colour Considerations.  A lot of new weavers find choosing colours to be challenging, in part because they don't really understand much colour theory or how colour works in the different woven structures.

(If you are looking for help with colour, you might check out Tien Chiu's website and the classes she and Janet Dawson are hosting.)

Part of the challenge with colour is coming to grips with scale and the distance at which the textile will be viewed.  

I didn't come by my approach to colour naturally.  I worked at it.  I had things that didn't turn out the way I wanted them to, but I learned from that.  In a 'well, I won't do *that* again' kind of lesson.

One thing that helped was taking a dyeing workshop where we took the primary colours and then made all kinds of different hues, tints, tones and shades.  Seeing what went into making a certain colour made it easier to choose what other colours to go with that colour.  Understanding that a green was more blue or more yellow meant I would look for other hues with a blue or yellow base to go with them.

And so on.

Weaving colour gamps helped, too, because I could see how the colours interacted when they crossed each other and how a different weave structure provided a different 'look' to the cloth - plain weave and twill, but others like lace weaves or waffle weave, or...

I'm nearly at the halfway mark on the current warp.  I'm pleased enough with it.  But I admit I'm tired of using up beiges.  The next one will be back to blue which is much more to my taste.  The cotton flake is going away faster than I expected, which is actually A Good Thing.  Because I'd like to move on to something different for a while.

It has been gratifying to see my stash evaporate, although I still have way too much yarn.

Ultimately I have no idea what is in the cards for me next year.  (I figure it will take most of the rest of this year to use up the next yarns in the queue.)  I also have way too much 2/16 rayon type yarns, which could make a lifetime's worth of scarves.  I'm not sure I feel up to tackling shawls, not because of the weaving, but the endless (feeling) fringe twisting of fine threads.  I can do it - I'd just rather not.

Yesterday I put away the spinning fibre and dug out the Ashford e-spinner and made a tentative start at spinning again.  I'm looking forward to using up the last of the hand dyed roving and turning to my own blended fibres.  Again, an exercise in working with colours.

Currently reading The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear - the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series.