Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / Creative works / Ocean Sunset II
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September 2, 2009 by Tien Chiu

Ocean Sunset II

before-wet-finishing

This was a variation on the Ocean Sunset shawl, except that I made it with a knitted blank!

Knitted blanks are an interesting concept taught to me by Nancy Roberts of Machine Knitting to Dye For.  You knit up a rectangular piece of fabric, dye it, and then unravel it and reuse the yarn.  Using this technique you can get gradual color changes WITHOUT having  to dye a zillion skeins, and you can get other effects as well (see the “Crazy Colors” shawl for an example).  In this case, I dyed a single blank a gradual change from yellow to red and back again to see what would happen when I wove it up!

I am of mixed minds about this shawl.  I don’t like the boldness of the lines near the bottom of the shawl, but I like the idea of the gradual color change.  I think I may try this idea again, but with a simpler pattern.

[Show as slideshow]
The pattern for Ocean Sunset II The pattern for Ocean Sunset II.
The wound warp for the Ocean Sunset II shawl The warp on the loom. Doesn't it look pretty?

Knitted blank for Ocean Sunset II This is the knitted blank. Notice how it shades gradually from gold to red.
Bobbins wound from knitted blank It's hard to see in the photo, but the bobbins gradually change color from start to finish. Beautiful!

View of the Ocean Sunset II shawl before wet-finishing The completed shawl before wet-finishing.

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Filed Under: Creative works, finished, Weaving Tagged With: blue to fuchsia warp, gradient colors, knitted blank, network drafting

Previous post: black jewel
Next post: …and bobbin lace, too

Comments

  1. scott says

    April 18, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    Fascinating! (I got here through the dyer’s list)

    I worked on a dance piece based on “Alice in Wonderland” about 20 years ago, where the artist who made the unitards used a similar technique. He knit, dyed, raveled, and re-knit in a different scale, adding spandex filament, and made snakeskin and scales and all sorts of amazing things!

    I wish I had more info on specifics…..

  2. Jean says

    May 7, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    Gorgeous shading in your weaving. Keep it up!

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