I did today. I started winding a shadow weave warp with these two green yarns.
I was surprised by how light and bright the warp looked on the warping board - and a little happy about that because I like the light green in this warp, but don't quite like the darker green.
When I took the first half of the warp off the warping board and draped it on the loom, I started to have misgivings. The warp is so much brighter than the yarn looked when it was in balls.
I consulted with the scarf recipient (Jim), and he's not happy with these colors together for his scarf either.
I did some stash diving for colors that might help me out of this mess, or for more manly colors in general. (One of my mottoes is "More Yarn!")
We decided to go a different route with Jim's scarf.
Since now I'm back to the drawing board on the next project for my baby wolf loom, I'm going to do a quick doubleweave sample with this red and green following the doubleweave chapter in Deborah Chandler's Learning to Weave.
I should be able to get that figured out and on the warping board pretty quickly.
For Jim's scarf, we've chosen these two colors of Harrisville yarn to go with his coat. I have plenty of the green, but not enough black.
Even though we've collaboratively figured out a draft that we both like, I need to go to the yarn store on the other side of NH to get the yarn. You don't even want to know what I have to do before then. (It involves designing and knitting a hat.....this could take a while!)
Yup, it was one of those days. The good news is that I powered through it and ended up with alternatives I like....without having too much of a tantrum. That feels like progress to me - since in the not-so-distant past, I would have stalled out for an embarrassingly long time after a day like today.
16 comments:
Hi
Plan B for Jim's scarf look good colours for him - but I really like your original combo. What will be the fate of the first warp?
It will be interesting to see what you do with double weave. It seems to offer a lot for mixing very different colours without getting a muddy effect.
Cheers
Judy
I like the first warp too! You know weft with a dark color will really bring down that green and depending on sett, with a balanced weave it might be just enough light green to be much more handsome than you two think.
Having written all that, Plan B is wonderful too!
And yes, I have had weaving days like that, a number of them. ;-) They have never been followed by a trip to Harrisville either. Lucky dog.
Have fun with the double weave. I have the DC book here and if you have any questions ( I find that book much more confusing than most) I can try to help out.
Keep chugging along Sue -- you'll get it right in the end. Life's too short to get stalled for long. Was it fun diving into your yarn stash? Betcha found wool you forgot you had. (been there, done that!).
Hooray for not getting stalled! A trip to the yarn store always works! lol
I like the first warp, too; maybe you should try a small sample to be sure that brighter green won't work.
Congrats on not getting stalled. I have a finicky engine myself, which stalls easily, so I'm really inspired by your unstallment. :-)
Thank you so much for leaving a comment on my blog! Its so nice to find another weaver that has such good info on there blog. I do have that book and I ordered the DVD and a scarf kit!
I love those greens but I'm sure he will like the green and black better.
I vote for the second set of colors - I tend to go more towards the drab end of the spectrum. Although I can't wait to see the first set woven.
Hi Sue, They arrived today. I can't thank you enough. Plus the letter with all the extra information and laundering tips. I can't quite come to terms with using such items for wiping dishes. It seems sacrilege to me. I have them placed in a highly visual place and will contemplate this for awhile.Lesley
I like the first one as well! The brighter first green can be toned down by subbing a different light green in the weft. Makes for very interesting shadow weave effects to use three colours instead of two. ;) Evelyn
I am just about to launch into a green piece myself. A customer wants a pair of woolen garters with forest green, grass green, light green, olive green, brown, butterscotch, khaki, cream and a little pink. How's that for a challenge?! There are actually too many colors to work with here in such a narrow piece 1". I'm playing around to see what I can come up with.
The Harrisville yarns you chose will be nice, subdued, lovely.
I think one of my goals this year is to understand the characteristics of weave structures, like what makes a shadow and weave be a shadow and weave. I hope you'll be sharing photos of the finished scarf!
I know exactly what those days feel like, what you thought you had totally sorted out in your mind decides to bite you on the backside by turning out to be different. I'm impressed by your ability to turn it around, particularly with a bit of collaboration! Looking forward to seeing the finished item.
Congratulations for getting through it. I think we've all had those days when you just wished you'd never heard of weaving, knitting or anything fiber related. But then you snap back to your senses and just know you could never live with out it. LOL.. I like both colors plan a and b.
One of those mysteries of color; a lot of different factors can change the way they look! The main opinion is Jim's though, so the rest doesn't matter. Someone else may love that first color combo.
Hiya. The amazing thing about weaving is what those colors do when they're actually woven together. I think you might be pleasantly surprised with your original plan. Didn't you say it was for a shadow-weave? That would be lovely!
Of course, if you saw my kitchen you might realize that my motto is "you can never have too many shades of green." So maybe I'm just biased.
On the other hand, it's these little challenges that can lead us to really interesting alternatives, and some fun weaving adventures. Good luck with your project!
Hi Sue!
I've been meaning to ask you if you've ever been to Harrisville Designs in Harrisville NH.
In the never ending hunt for Historical Markers, Carol asked if we could stop there. An amazing (to me) place! They have their own line of looms and yarns and such. Carol is thinking about taking a class there.
Needless to say when we left, ye olde coin purse was a bit lighter.
Happy New Year to you and all your readers!
Mike
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