Eye Candy

 

colours are not 'true' - the blue weft is darker value than it shows in the photo

After what seems like weeks of grey dreary days my eye was growing weary of the very dark blues I had been weaving.  Last week I finished the last of the dark blue warps and immediately put this warp into the loom.

I like most colours, some I just like better than others.  As is the case with most people, I think.  I still struggle to work with some colours, like the dull 'earth tones', although I can make the colours work in a way that is pleasing to me.  Usually.  But still, some colours just perk me up.  Such is the case with these blues.

(If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know how often this kind of colour appears on my looms!)

With the grey dreary days and not feeling particularly well on the day I beamed this warp, it didn't go onto the beam as 'perfectly' as I would have liked, so there are some minor tension issues.  Over the years, I've learned that these tension issues won't cause much of an impact on the cloth once it's been wet finished.  I do have to be a lot more careful about throwing the shuttle and watch to make sure I don't submarine the shuttle and pick up ends from the shed floor creating skips. 

As I've been sitting weaving (what I've done so far), I am making a mental note to adjust how I fill the tension box.  I'll 'skinny' the ribbon of warp going into the box by one dent, and that should make it a lot easier to lay the ribbon into the section 'flat'.

OTOH, I really am enjoying seeing this warp in the loom, so I'm not terribly bothered about the tension issues knowing it should resolve.

The new weave structure is working very well in this new draft, and I am liking it well enough that I may manipulate the motifs to create 'sister' designs.  Or I may try to make a completely 'new' draft, based on what I'm learning from working with this one.

And that's the thing with weaving.  The possibilities are nearly endless.  As we end one year and begin the next, I will float into that new year on the nice 'eye candy' in the loom and enjoy the return of the sun and the longer hours of daylight.  Just hoping that we get actual sunny days instead of this dreary overcast murk and far too warm temps with too little precipitation.  Or next summer is going to be brutal for a lot of people.