Working with colour

I am sure you are all familiar with the situation where you are at the yarn store and you see and feel a yarn that you really like.  So you buy it.  Then you think afterwards, ‘What am I now going to do with this?’.  So you desperately search Ravelry or you Google ideas.

Sound familiar?

I do it all the time and my stash keeps growing.  I went to Wonderwool Wales this year and came back with another load of yarn.  I did at least have some thoughts about what I wanted to do with it though, so that’s a change.  But, I shall have to show you my stash bags one day.  Maybe some other stash-addicts will stand up and be counted too 🙂

But I want to be more forward thinking and I want to design and weave something of my own.  However, I need to visualise it.  So this week I ordered a pad and colouring pencils, and now they are here.

The colour selection appears to be quite good, and these can be blended to create additional shades.  When it arrived the colours seemed all mixed up, so out they all came so that I could put them into some shade order.  The pad is just an A5 type, perfect for capturing ideas and rough sketches.

My thought is that I draw up with colour what I want to make.  That way, I am building the pattern and design, which will mean I can (hopefully) turn that into fabric.  I can play around with colours and patterns until get it right.  It may be a plaid or something more random.

And because I have this stash, I can match shades in the pencils to what I have in stash and really get the creative juices flowing.

As an example, my next project will be some tea towels.  I have the yarn, but I haven’t thought about the pattern.  Will it be simple stripes or checkerboard?  If stripes, how wide will they be?  Or will it vary across the warp and through the weft.  Here is where I am currently at.  I’ll probably do another two layouts and whilst it says c.270 epi that is not a given.  It’s just my thought process around the widths needed for each band.  As you can see, the yarn is from Venne, Bio Cottoline at 22/2 and can take a 60c wash and hot iron; perfect for towels. I’ll be using a 15 dent heddle.

The two drawn up so far are fairly standard I think.  And I have really only focused on colour through the warp.  The next two may be pure natural warp and the green and natural play through the weft.

I have another set of yarn that I have close matches for in the pencils, but I am not yet decided on what I plan to make with it.  The yarn I picked up at Wonderwool and is a lovely and soft 100% Alpaca from Sandes Garn, made in Norway.  The shades are a lovely mix and could easily create an ombré scarf, but I might do some clasped weft weaving.  Never tried it before, but it looks fun.  When I was selecting the yarn colours, I had in my head seaside blues from the water and white for the wave crests.  But how to translate that is the next challenge.

So, stay tuned to see how this designing element turns out and transfers to the loom. I would love to hear what you think and any ideas welcome.

Jamie