In The Wings

Trying to use up stash, things can get a bit challenging.  Which is not a bad thing, but...

So I had this box of pirns, wound with a beige that has a bit of a green tinge to it.  The tendency would be to 'muddy' the colour it crosses, so I had to think for a while what to do for a warp to use the beige on.

My yarn stash is diminishing nicely, and choices were getting scarce.  Eventually I pulled the rose/brick/beiges in the bin, with the thought of doing something like brick work.

But the more I thought about how those colours were going to interact, the more I hesitated.  I already had a warp with very similar colours and the result was...visually very 'busy'.  And in my eye, not particularly attractive. 

Customers obviously agreed, because very few of those towels have sold.

So I let the whole thing simmer on the back burner for weeks.  Months, to be honest.   In the interim, I worked on other combinations that appealed to me more than this one.

But I'm running out of time to make tea towels.  I have agreed to do some other things, plus I'd just like to work with some other yarns and make something other than tea towels.  Because goodness knows, I have plenty (plenty!) of tea towels, given I'm not doing any craft fairs.

(Truth to tell, most of them are cancelled anyway - we are mulling over how/if we do a guild room sale.)

Shops are still closed, although the provincial medical officer is beginning to loosen things.  We will pause for at least two weeks to see how the numbers are before Dr. Henry proceeds with further lessening of restrictions.

But back to the above.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking more consciously about this particular combination.  I examined and tossed out multiple approaches.  The first firm decision I came to was to not blend the different colours, but to make coloured stripes.  So the rose/brick will be grouped together, bracketed by the beiges.  The difference in value means the colours must be more carefully distributed, not randomly sprinkled.

Once I had made the decision, I considered weave structures,  The original plan was tossed out because the motif would not play well within the stripes.  So then I considered other options.  Each one was tossed out because I didn't have a good feeling about how it would look with those yarns in a stripe.

Yesterday I tossed out everything and decided simple is best.  This warp will be woven in a 1:3 broken twill.  The cloth will be primarily warp on one side (to be the 'right' side) and the beige weft will be primarily on the other (back) side.  The cloth will be woven 'upside down' so that I am lifting the least number of shafts.  IOW, back side up.

Will it work?  I'll know in the next few weeks.  I hit the halfway mark on the current warp, but I have another project that needs to be done with some urgency after putting it on hold some weeks ago.  That deadline is about to go 'critical'.  Which is when I work 'best', it seems.