I finished unraveling the blank in two hours and fifteen minutes – a hefty amount of time considering I plan to weave up twelve blanks! But I think that switching to a wider blank will speed that up.
Here is a photo of the finished pirns. Doesn’t look like much for six hours’ work, does it? (2.25 hours to knit, 1.5 hours to mix up dyes and paint it, 2.25 hours to unravel.)
I love the colors. The only problem in my mind is that the gold really dominates – that’s because of an error in dyeing: I missed a section end or two and so the color repeats are way too long in some areas. When I knit the next blank, I will include a row or two of cotton yarn at the end of each section, to make the changes more obvious. But who knows? It may turn out to be perfectly OK, in which case my next problem is duplicating it for next time!
Here are the beginnings, woven up:
In retrospect, I don’t like the green-and-yellow section. The contrast is too high and is distracting. I suspect this answers the question of whether I want to keep puddles of color separate or let them merge. If I do keep them separate, I will want to mix intermediate shades to keep the color changes subtle.
I thought about which way to orient the maple leaves. They are more “readable” as maple leaves when pointing upward, but in autumn the leaves fall DOWN, not up, so I decided to put them pointing down (for this sample, anyway). Here’s what it will look like when actually sewn up:
But I am not wedded to this, and am curious what you think! Please leave a comment telling me what you prefer and why! I might just switch it halfway through.
Did you try reversing every other column so that the first column points up and the next column points down, etc. across the warp? Otherwise, I like the leaves pointing up, they are more optimistic. After all, fall is about beginnings as well as ends.
The dominent gold may appear more subtle next to you reds and red purples. Yellow is usually the weakest color, even with the dos you used. You are, I think, correct about the use of green and gold. Your green (on my computer) looks too blue for this purpose. Perhaps a more yellow green?
I look forward to the next iteration.
I like the leaves the more readable way, stems down. But I have a technical justification for you if you want it – for many leaves, the stems may be the heaviest part and thus they may fall stems-down. 🙂 It’s just as likely and perhaps more so than stem-up.
Anyway, the position that most makes me think of a falling leaf is on its side, curled up (like this: http://raic.deviantart.com/art/Falling-Leaf-108650072) , rather than on a plane that’s perpendicular to my POV, whether stem is up, down, left or right. Since that definitely won’t be as readable in weaving, I think you’ll just have to pick your symbolism rather than worry about realism.
what effect are you going for with this garment? i think with the leaves pointing downward, it will draw the viewer’s eye downward as well. now if you could only find a way to orient the leaves in different directions so that the leaves look like they’re slowly drifting downward… 🙂
I can see what you’re thinking about leaves falling down, but they don’t “go head down to the ground” as it looks with the leaves upside down, They tend to float down, so that I prefer the upright so I can tell what they are. 🙂
Tips up, stems down. The stem is heaviest, so the main body of the leaf flutters and floats and lands last.
In the few attempts I’ve made at knitted/raveled weft, I’ve been disappointed that the look wasn’t that different from what I would have achieved simply by pulling the next close color off a cone of yarn. Or even graded yarns that I had dyed (eliminating the knitting & raveling step). A long time ago, I wove a piece in which I used two wefts in each pick (I used one of those double boat shuttles). Periodically, I switched out one of the two colors. On the next switch, I would take out the color that had not been removed in the previous switch. If you can get colors that move very gradually in the direction you want them to move, it may be another way to get the gradation you are seeking without the hours of knitting & raveling.