A Van Gogh Palette

I wove a bit this morning on this ...did the mouth a couple of times and now am re-vamping the nose for perhaps the fifth time. Once those two parts are done the rest should be fairly easy. I'll take a picture when I am done. This is good practice for the next piece I am going to do.

The sun came out around noon today so I figured it would be a good dye day. One of the Guilds I belong to has an annual challenge. This year it is to be inspired by a Van Gogh painting and the year of my birth. It has to be at least half handwoven or handspun and not too big. Everyone has a different Van Gogh masterpiece. Mine is one of his vases of sunflowers.

I came up with a great design for a tapestry which would be best with a 12 epi sett...which needs a 12/6 warp. None of that in my stash...so a few phone calls and it is now in the mail. The design is fairly challenging...but more on that at a later date.

Not only did I not have the warp, I also did not have the right palette of weft. So a dye day was in order. And today seemed a perfect day since the morning fog burned off and there was sun! Here is a picture of the results of my efforts- the dyed yarn drying outside. There does seem to be a lot of yarn for a piece which is expected to be 12 by 14 inches!

I realized once I finished dyeing my base yarn which is a blueish grey silk, that I would never be able to get the right yellow in the sunflowers. I hunted around my stash and found a cone of an off white silk/cotton (70/30%) blend which I then dyed yellow, yellow orange and a pale seafoam. Now I think I have the right palette. Although, to make it easier to achieve the mottled effect I want in the background I may do a couple painted warps.


ps the fog is coming in