How to Weave a Sunset

The colors of my sunset

I have been feeling quite productive and creative lately and have felt the need to complete my Pelican Sunset tapestry.  This was something I started quite awhile ago and dropped for other things.  Now that my hand is back to normal I can get back to my normal affairs - weaving.

I have two tapestries going right now...one big (40" x 60") and one small (4" x 10")...both make me happy while weaving.  It's actually difficult to decide which one to work on and each has a quite do-able deadline.  Both are color studies and not highly image focused so its like weaving a stream of consciousness with the only focus on blending of colors.  It is quite refreshing and good for the soul.

To the left are the colors for my sunset.  I have lots of weft leftover from my big tapestry poems which I am incorporating into this piece.  I have the leftovers from my shuttles, bobbins, butterflies and some balls in all shades of the sunset.  A lot of yarn but this is a big tapestry.  I've decide to basically weave in sections yet keep the fell line within a couple inches of each other.  This way I won't run out of any specific color for my sunset.

My Set Up

I have never woven a sunset...not that I haven't seen beautiful ones living on the west coast near the ocean.   Did I ever tell you the story about a sales conference I went to in Key West?  There was all this hype about the most gorgeous sunsets in Key West. The hype would make marketers proud.  We all ran to the deck of the hotel with our mojitos ready to see the most beautiful sunset in the world.  With all the hype - there was no way we would miss that sunset.  We waited... the sun set and hmmm... yes - a nice sunset... but not the greatest.  Seemed pretty much in the warm belly of the bell curve.

But then it struck me like an electrical current  I realized folks on the East coast don't see the sunset over the ocean - they only see the sunrise. So any sunset over the ocean is special.  Then of course those folks from the Mid-west never see the sunset over an ocean. And who were the likely folks to make it to Key West?  Not those of us from the West Coast who would probably prefer to fly to Hawaii than Key West during hurricane season.

So for many that was indeed the most gorgeous sunset...that is until they see my current tapestry.

Dye Day - Unique Tapestry Yarn

Some additions to my stash

I finished my kaibab squirrel tapestry and it's having it's final rest out in the sun under some books.     A photo soon.

Since I was outside I took a photo of the silk yarn I dyed at our guild's dye day.  The dye day was designed to be a day to dye silk scarves which I blogged about earlier.   Of course, one can really do whatever one wants.

I always take a few skeins of silk yarn to these affairs - not to acheive some specific color but to capture some colors that others have mixed up.  These colors are not reproducable but they tend to be great colors which I would never in a million years come up with.

The two greens were made by pouring all the leftover greens into one jar when cleaning up.   One skein was dyed loose while the other was dyed braided to give it a mottled effect.

The two purples and the light olive green looking yarn were all from one mixed color just at different saturation levels.   The yellow green one was handpainted with the gradation from golden yellow to black which I was playing around with. I can't remember where I got that teal from...

These yarns will be a nice addition to my stash.

The Last Inch - Pulling In

Back of tapestry
with 1 inch to go.

One more inch to go on my kaibab squirrel tapestry.

The last inch is always the hardest...particularly here where the last inch is merely a grass background.  Nothing really to keep me interested except for the finish line.

The problem with the last inch is that the edges tend to move inward due to inattention, speed and a different bubbling of the weft.   Now that I have stated the issue, I will now see if I can finish up that last inch...without the edges moving inward.

I have a lovely frame for this piece.  The edges need to be a certain size and ...straight. Should be done tomorrow. Let's see how it goes.

Wrong Blue? Easy fix...

From this....

To this....

WIth a bit of this. 

Dyeing Silk vs Cotton

Results of my morning

I spent a few minutes this morning dyeing some yarn I recently bought at Dharma Trading when I was up in the Bay Area.   Eventually I will run out of my favorite 'thin' tapestry yarn and will have to replace it with something else.  So while at Dharma I selected three candidates. a 100% noil silk, a 50/50 cotton/silk blend and a 100% pima cotton.   And this morning I thought I would test how each takes the dye.

For our guild's color wheel project one of my colors is green so I have been collecting various green yarns to do something in green.  Today seemed a great opportunity to add to my green collection as well as test out the new yarn.  I found an old Createx liquid dye called Emerald Green and decided to try that out.  Here are the results:

100% Silk on left, 100% cotton in middle, 50/50 blend on right.

 As you can see, the three skeins are slightly different colors. But they are definitely green. They were all in the same dye pot for the same amount of time.  I always find it fascinating to see how the nature of the fiber makes a difference in the resulting color.

Next I wanted to try something called Paris green.  As I mixed it up I tested it and the color was way too blue so I added a bit of yellow to bring it back to the green side of blue.   But from the results below you can tell I didn't add enough yellow to shift it to green.   Again most interesting to see the colors resulting from three different fiber blends in the same dye pot.

100% Silk on left, 100% cotton in middle, 50/50 blend on right. 

And here is the Paris green with a lot more yellow added with a resulting color which fall within my 'green' category.  On my computer screen the one on the right looks a bit blue but in real life it tends more to green. 

100% Silk on left, 100% cotton in middle,50/50 blend on right.

And now I think I have quite enough green yarn for a 4 by 10 inch tapestry!