I wove off the samples we put on the loom during Sharon’s workshop.
My original vision was to create a cloth of black ground with occasional flashes of jewel tones blinking in and out of the cloth. I had planned on dyeing a skein with random lengths (2″ or so) of color with black, using ikat to get the effect I wanted. I had also thought to use handspun yarn for the entire cloth.
Due to time limitations, I used Jaggerspun Zephyr for my class sample with random ends of color. You know what? I like the weight and drape of the Zephyr so I think I will go with that for my yardage. This will save me a ton of spinning time.
I put on a warp with half blue (Zephyr color indigo) and half black (Zephyr color ebony) and I wove 4 pieces, 2 with indigo weft and 2 with ebony weft. Why 4 pieces? I made a treadling error on the first piece but it had some interesting elements so I decided to make samples of both the mistake and the corrected treadling. In the end, I have decided that the error treadling created too strong of a twill line. When combined with the shots of color, it is too distracting.
Here are pictures of my individual samples, with all the noise taken away. I’ve tried to correct the coloring so that they are fairly true to life. Which do you prefer?
Ebony Warp
Left: Indigo Weft. Right: Ebony Weft.
Left: Ebony Weft. Right: Indigo Weft.
Indigo Warp
Left: Indigo Weft. Right: Ebony Weft.
Left: Ebony Weft. Right: Indigo Weft.
Hi Ann
I want to see in person but in photo I like the top left- think it was ebony warp / indigo weft
You are amazing – the are all beautiful !
I liike the top left one, too. I like the irregularity of the colored floats in this one. In the indigo weft samples the weave structure shows more and distracts a little from the overall effect with the colors. Of course, seeing the cloth in person would reveal different aspects.
Using commercially spun yarn will make it a lot easier to get this cloth done in time, so that is a good decision in my opinion, too.
Gorgeous!