Colors pale and colors bright

I’ve woven the 3 scarves with that last pastel silk warp. In the process of fringing, then will do bits of needed needle weaving and wet finishing. Still, I can show you some previews now. You already saw the lavender weft. About half way through I realized I had really long floats in one spot (9 threads!), but didn’t want to fix the tie up in midstream, so I hope that float doesn’t make for an unstable/unusable cloth.

Then I decided to go more for texture than color, and used a singles silk with a lot of texture to it. I fixed the tie up and changed the treadling pattern.

For the third scarf I used a thicker weft in a cotton-linen blend, and changed the treadling again. I really like how it looked on the loom.

Meanwhile I wanted to get back in the dye studio (aka my basement) while the weather forecast was for rain. So I planned and measured for 2 more warps. One was inspired by this great print of a mallard wood duck by Bob Ripley that I bought at Cazenovia Artisans. (Sorry the photo isn’t so great; the painting is.)

The colors aren’t exactly what I had in mind, but I can use black, blue, or white for weft to create more of the look I had intended. Here’s that warp dried and chained.

For the other warp, I was truly inspired by Denise Kovnat‘s talk at Monday’s Weavers Guild evening meeting. The presentation was on paint 2, beam 1, a concept that hadn’t previously moved me, but it did after I heard her speak. The basics are paint 2 warps in complementary colorways, beam them together, use parallel threading, sett close and use a weft that is finer than the warp, achieve a warp-faced fabric. So I picked the colors of pansies, and here are my two warps chained and swirled together.

I think they look smashing. Hope they do after they are woven, too. 🙂

I have two more painted colorways in mind, but need to weave some more right now. Am currently working on another 6 bumberet towels in pinks and oranges. I sold 3 of the 6 in the blues and greens. 🙂