To refresh your memory, the colour options:
I ruled out the blue ('teal') in favour of the burgundy. Yesterday a patch of lighter skies coincided with lunch; after I cut the grass, I wound my first-ever wraps to investigate how these stripes might work. Based on the premise that I'm not fond of wide stripes, I decided to work logically and think of the 15" warp as 10x1.5" repeats. So each wrap is 1.5". I worked out colour proportions based on how much yarn I have and how much I like the colours. Lots of dark purple, then :-) I know that everything will be knocked back about 50% by the dark silk weft, but I'm having a little trouble imagining that. I might go and troll the internet for pictures of handwoven stripes.
I have to say that this did so little for me that I didn't continue. I can sort of see it woven and it's interesting, but not something I would wear,
So I broke all the stripes into much narrower units. And got suiting, or something related to it. I liked this while I was wrapping it, but after I set it on the warp and watched it for a while, it became busy. So today I try wider stripes. I will try a 5" repeat, and I will try to devise a set of rules that creates semi-random wider stripes across the entire width of the warp. I might try the teal instead of the burgundy, too - I'm wondering whether I'd be happier with colder tones.
I have a hunch my waffling is driving Lynn mad :-) But I've never worked with colour before in this way, and I've never even thought about stripes. I need to have some basic understanding before I start so I can avoid the easiest, most lethal mistakes, like choosing colours I don't like. I'll be making enough of the more difficult ones late.
In a similar vein, the next knitting project:
You aren't driving me mad at all, dear, you're doing exactly what I should do - and often don't.
ReplyDeleteOK, so, I don't care for the randomly wound option, either. I like the first set of stripes, but I wouldn't wear it myself. I like your "suiting" option, and I might wear it, but I don't know about that yellow, still. What happens if you leave it out entirely? Or put the orange on only one side of the yellow? Or leave out the yellow entirely and use only narrow orange stripes? When I look at stripes I do like, they are often much narrower than I usually have the patience to create myself.
And are you about to be Color Afflicted?
I am already Colo(u)r Afflicted. I have a sludge-coloured 14th C (style) peasant dress I love; if I could find the right purple I'd ask M. to make me another. Failing that I'll measure the panels and put it on the list of stuffs to weave.
ReplyDeleteI have in mind to wind some stripes subbing teal for yellow; the problem is that I know I'd like it, I won't learn anything from it. I know the yellow can work because Sara uses it, although her garments are more yellow and bronze, less purple. I think the yellow in the first stripes works because the rust works with the colours on both sides; the yellow and violet fails (for me) because (for me) they're too dissimilar. So yellow with rust is good. Yellow with burgundy is too Hogwarts. Burgundy with purple is (I just realised) too similar to the striped school uniform livery of a big school in Cambridge. I just need to play a bit more, I think. But I want to get a warp on the loom. I can find something in the stash, I'm sure... I have something in mind, but it's largely pink!
Two things. Use the yellow (actually gold, but who needs to pick nits?) sparingly, as in a small stripe either side to outline another color, say the burgundy, to divide it from the purple but not be a color it and of itself. The orange can also be small outline stripes (if I am reading you correctly, the orange would not be a color you wear alone, so it becomes an accent then, not a dominant color). So then you have burgundy and purple stripes, of varying sizes (I use odd numbers here) outlined by very small accents of a color that is so bright you won't wear it alone, but which will make your dark colors pop. The outline stripes do not have to outline every burgundy or purple stripe, soemtimes the burgundy/purple can butt up against each other too, or have the lighter purple in between.
ReplyDeleteSecond thing: just send me those skeins with which you wish to knit. You will never be happy with them and I will promise to give them a good home.
If you have this year's Interweave Handwoven calender, there is a very nice example of the Tiny Accent Stripe Theory this month (May) in a rep weave.
I use felt tip pens for stripe sequences too, but my life is easy that way because I only have to own about 6 pens for all the "colors" I use.
I guess that was 4 things. Alas.
Sara, your third book needs to be about using color in weaving. Seriously. I am (we are) learning a lot about using color from your comments. You can structure the book as a series of exercises the three of us execute, like this: You explain something. You give us a little open-ended exercise to do regarding that something. We each do the exercise. Then we all comment on and learn from those practice pieces. Repeat for Thing-to-learn #2, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is it obvious how much I want someone to tell me what to do, rather than stumbling around learning it for myself?
ReplyDelete