Friday, May 23, 2008

Weaving Colours

Just like background colour can change the look and feel of an embroidery piece, so the warp and weft colours can completely change the look of a woven piece. Here are some photos of the finished products of last night's weaving class. This first one is one of my placemats. The thin white lines are the guide for cutting them apart (yes I'm nervous, but I've been given instructions). As I mentioned yesterday, I love the way the variegated green looks as warp and weft with plainweave. But notice how the green barely comes out with the pattern band.
Joy kindly allowed me to photograph her piece which uses the same green variegated warp. She used black and white novelty yarns and ribbon to create this length which will be cut up to make pillows. In some places you can barely tell it is the same yarn I am using.
I had some warp left at the end of my weaving so I tried some purple yarns. I've seen this purple and green colourway in a few things, including some orchids, so I thought it was worth a try. Most of the stripes are plainweave, but I did do a couple of bird's eye pattern strips as well. It was great fun seeing how the colours work together and good practice to get the feel of odd yarns.
Cherri suggested that I be sure to add an extra yard whenever I measure my warp so I have experiment room and I heartily agree. It is fun. Here is the final, uncut, piece. Almost 5 yards long. It really didn't take too long, and as a novice, it was amazing to see how much came off the cloth beam. As I was weaving, I really didn't get a sense of how long it was!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lovely colours. I have just visited my friend marg and been very impressed with her loom and weaving, but I am resisting adding it to my reportoire!