Of color and conferences

You may recall that my Kodachrome Coat was one of the winners in the Vav/Handwoven garment contest, which meant that it went to Sweden for the Vav conference.  Well, Wendy Morris, a Complex Weavers member residing in the UK, was at the conference and was kind enough to send me this photo:

As you can see, it’s quite a bit brighter than anything else in the room!

Meanwhile, I am busy as a bee weaving up sample #7 for Autumn Splendor:

It’s white wool on white silk.  Doesn’t look like much, does it?  But it will look far better when dyed.

The intent of this sample is to see whether the subtle color variations in sample #6 can be created using surface design/dyeing techniques instead of a laboriously knitted-and-unraveled blank.  While I am not averse to doing knitted blanks if it produces the effect I want, I’m also not averse to finding an easier way.  The surface design techniques I’m considering won’t produce the horizontal stripes, but that’s fine – I’m more interested in subtle color variation than the striping per se.

Plan for this sample is to cut it into three pieces and try:

• smooth color gradation with acid dyes followed by a faint scrunch-dye overdyeing in fiber-reactive dyes
• painted-on loose stripes of similar colors with acid dyes followed by a smooth color gradation in fiber-reactive dyes
• smooth color gradation with acid dyes, scrunched up and more acid dye applied, followed by smooth color gradation in fiber-reactive dyes

I’m inclined to do smooth color gradations in the second dyebath because I believe that will give a more subtle result than a patterned overdyeing.  Only time will tell, though!

I’m really cranking away on this sample because I want to have it done by the time I go see Sharon on Saturday afternoon.  Given the time required for fiber-reactive dyes to “set”, that means it must be fully woven and acid-dyed on Friday morning, and fiber-reactive dyed Friday evening, to have the best chance of fixing correctly by Saturday afternoon when I go see Sharon.  (I may cheat and put it on a heating pad, set to “low”.)

Anyway, I have 18″ woven so far.  I figure I’ll simply finish up with whatever I’ve got woven on Thursday morning (I’m booked tonight and tomorrow evenings), and dye on Friday morning.  Of course, I also have to get those muslins completed and sewn (a bit of a tall order), but I figure I can draft in the early mornings and sew things up on Saturday morning.  Except for a complete redraft of the sleeve, the pattern changes are relatively minor and shouldn’t take long.