This shawl is closely related to “Liquid Fire“, except with a black weft instead of a changing-color weft.  It was inspired by an article by Flavian  Geis in Weaver’s magazine, which depicted a cocoon jacket.  My attempt at weaving the jacket was unsuccessful, but I had enough warp left over to weave a couple of shawls.  The first one I did in a black weft, and this is “Black Fire”.  It looks a little like tiger stripes, no?

The shawl on the loom, showing the warp color progression nicely. The paper tape on the right is to track how much I've woven.

A closeup of the pattern on the loom.

A closeup, that shows the pattern clearly. It's an advancing twill, published by Flavian Geis in Weaver's Magazine.

A larger photo of the same shawl.

The reverse side of "Black Fire". Notice how this is slightly weft-dominant, making for a darker shawl.

The front side of Black Fire. The warp is slightly dominant on this side, giving more intense colors.

This shawl rose out of an unsuccessful attempt to weave the advancing-twill cocoon jacket published by Flavian Geis in Weaver’s magazine (can’t remember the issue).  It was a beautiful jacket, with a warp that gradually changed colors from red to yellow and back again, and a weft that alternated between black and a sequence that changed from red to yellow and back again.  The result was an absolutely beautiful jacket.  I wove it up only to discover that, alas, my loom was too narrow! and the resulting jacket was too short for anyone older than 8.  What a disappointment!

Nonetheless, I forged on.  I had enough warp on the loom for three more shawls, so I wove two shawls with black weft with the intent of giving them away.  Then I found myself looking at the pirns full of those beautiful red-to-yellow shades.  I had hand-dyed 20 skeins of yarn in colors changing gradually from red to yellow, so close in hue that it was nearly impossible to distinguish adjacent stripes.  I had enough left over on the pirns to weave one last shawl.  Would it work?  There was only one way to find out!

…so I wove up the shawl, in 1.5″ stripes of each weft color, to produce an absolutely stunning shawl.  I have since done more complex work with changing colors, but this was my first piece, and I love it.

Liquid Fire on the loom (a Leclerc Diana). The paper tape on the right is a measuring-mechanism, that tells me how much I've woven, and when to change weft colors.

A closeup of "Liquid Fire". Here the weft is red, showing the advancing twill pattern clearly.

Half the Liquid Fire shawl. This photo shows how the weft color changes gradually from red at left to yellow at the center of the piece, producing a starburst-like pattern.

The completed Liquid Fire shawl. Photo courtesy Joe Decker, Rockslide Photography.