Here is the latest shawl, the slow color progression from one end of the shawl to another:

It’s a hideously bad photo (the colors are NOT true), but it gives you some idea.

This shawl represents a turning point for me: it is the first shawl I’ve produced that is (I think – still need to look it over closely) technically flawless, that I don’t feel the need to apologize for in some way.  I’m not sure I like the colors (too much yellow, I think) but in pattern and in weaving it’s pretty darn good.  I could enter it in competition, or sell it, without reservations.

Next up on the loom will be the precision dyeing “faux weft ikat” using a knitted blank.  This will be interesting.  I calculated the exact number of inches in a single shot of weft by weaving 10 shots, then carefully unweaving them and measuring the length.  Then I divided by 10 to get the average length, far more accurate than measuring a single shot.

Then I asked Nancy to knit me a blank with each row exactly the length of a single shot.  She returned the blank to me a few days ago, so now – at least in theory – I can dye the blank in patterns, unravel it, weave it up, and the same patterns will appear in the finished cloth.  Weft ikat without the frame and tying.

In practice, of course, I expect the numbers to be slightly “off” in one direction or another.  If it’s too long, the patterns will drift slightly diagonally (at least in theory; I have to do some tests to understand exactly what will happen).  If it’s too short, I can either live with drifting patterns OR cut off a few warp threads at the edges to make the piece a little narrower.  There will also be some variation in the length (even a knitting machine is not 100% constant) so the image will be somewhat fuzzy, even if it turns out to be an exact match.  Finally, the image will be much longer on the machine knitted blank than it will be woven, because of the taller rows that knitting produces.

Because of all this, I think I’m going to try dyeing a sample first (always sample!) and see what happens before committing the rest of the blank.  I think I will do big yellow dots on a deep orange background (though I haven’t decided for sure yet), and change the weave structure to something very simple, probably the 4-shaft goose-eye pattern.  With so much color going on, a complex weave structure would be pure chaos.

I finally managed to twist the fringes, wet-finish, press, etc. the changing-colors shawl today at lunchtime, so I couldn’t resist posting a new set of photos.  I’ve Photoshopped them in an attempt to get the saturation to where the shawl actually is, but it’s just about impossible to capture the sheen of the silk in a photo, so if you really want to know what it looks like, you’ll have to come have tea with me.  🙂

I am actually pretty pleased with this shawl, though I consider it more of a hasty sketch than a carefully painted study.  It has some flaws, not fatal ones, but on the whole, it’s beautiful – especially close up, where the yellow stripes aren’t as pronounced.  Crumpled randomly into a pile, it is a collection of ever-changing colors, no square inch like another, flowing into each other gracefully – which was, of course, the point.

I have also figured out how to correct my warping problem that was creating the stripes.  The problem lies in the threading – I got the cross twisted somehow when I did my initial threading – and if I just rethread those sections removing the twist in the cross, I should be just fine.  I had thought this impossible because I am used to working with a plain beam – but with a sectional beam, I can easily identify the precise thread at which the incorrect section starts, and use my handy AVL treadling-the-threading trick to rethread the section quickly and accurately.  Hopefully that should fix it.

Tonight I am going to cut and dip caramels, tomorrow is a guild meeting.  Friday is date night, so no candy until Saturday…when I start in on fudge.  Yum!

And now, the photos….

I got up this morning and took some photos of the shawl.  I have mixed feelings about it.

Close up, the colors are gorgeous.  But when you stand back five feet it looks like a series of stripes, and almost like a plaid in the places where I got the warp wrong and there are visible stripes in the warp.  There is a strong value contrast between the yellow and the red, which makes the yellow stand out more, and there are uneven spots where you can see a clear distinction between two of the yellows.  The pattern does not stand out in most of the areas.  So there are definitely flaws in the piece, though the overall idea is sound.

I think I’m going to weave another piece with the same colors, only this time:

• Make each of the diamonds a single color, so the pattern shows up clearly.  Or do a gradual fade across the diamond, keeping more or less the same value.
• Be more careful to get gradual color transitions.
• Tone down the yellow and only go to gold, instead of fading to the lemon yellow.

This piece is pretty, but I think it could be more!  Advice on what might look nice would be welcome, I haven’t played with color theory much.  I think perhaps some more Photoshop simulations are in order before I do the next round…

The pix: