First observations on the color study

I debugged the warp this morning – no threading errors, and only one sleying error! A few other errors along the way, but nothing that couldn’t be solved easily.

And here is the first few inches of cloth:

I dyed the beginning of the warp solid black, to make it easier to catch errors. I used the first few inches to play with complementary colors, blue and orange. Here’s a closeup:

The two bands of orange intrigue me – the one in the lower section is somewhat subdued, and blends nicely, while the second one really jumps out like a sore thumb. This is partly because there is more orange in the top band, and stronger blues in the top band (which naturally makes the complementary color – orange – jump out more). But it’s also because the second band of orange is woven in a different pattern (4/4 satin as opposed to 1/7 satin) than the pale blue and turquoise. Farther away (as in the first photo), all you see is color and the difference really isn’t that emphatic. Close up, the difference in pattern makes the orange really jump at you.

Lesson: at a distance, all you see is the overall (blended) color; close up, pattern can make a huge difference.

Interesting, eh?

It’s really neat that I haven’t even started the custom-dyed section yet and I’m already learning a lot. I’m totally psyched about beginning the study.

Speaking of which, you’ll notice (in the top photo) that the first section, monochrome in black, white, and gray, is coming up. The white bands show where each section was tied off. I’m smug: 13 yards of warp and everything lines up within three inches! I know ikat weavers do better, but I’m still feeling pretty darned good about my dye job.

And now that I’m back, the kittens are back to harassing me. Tigress, for example, loves to curl up in front of my monitor, but only if I’m trying to write a blog post or otherwise use the computer:

She’s so cute, though, that it’s hard to get up the motivation to disturb her. So I spend a lot of my computer time peering around a cat. 🙂