Monday, June 11, 2012

Working with handspun painted yarn in tapestry

My daughter-in-law spins gorgeous yarn. Which makes me very happy.
Because, sometimes a skein or two finds its way into my studio.
Recently, she spun Merino and silk and dyed it turquoise and purple, separated by short sneezes of sunshine yellow.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
I love it, and have been puzzling over how to use it in one of my new tapestries in a way that keeps the integrity of the colorway, while working across the entire width of the tapestry. Weaving narrow bands of it in vertical columns would not be a problem with maintaining the colors as units... but... horizontally- ah, well... that's another cup of soup entirely.

I didn't want to have the colors end up in little splats of one color arguing with another.
That meant working in short segments, weaving small blocks of each color.

I could have woven little squares of each color, with little slits that would need to be stitched or interlocked. Myech...
I sat down with my trusty little pencil and thought about this conundrum....
and came up with this:
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
If I started at the left hand edge, and wove a little triangle with one length of turquoise, then, I could use the little bursts of yellow to tell me when to nip down, and start a slanting wedge of purple.
This completely worked for me! I wouldn't have any joins to deal with, and I could work each little section of color in order, so the colorway of the yarn stays intact.
It's a happy solution to an interesting problem!
Tapestry weaving is full of nifty little voyages of discovery :)
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
My first little purple patch was not so perfect, but by the time I had woven across to the right hand side I was pleased with it.
Here's the video:

2 comments:

Susan said...

OMG! This is just what we needed to start a small tapestry lesson. Keep those tips and tricks coming. The yarn is beautiful too.

Noreen Crone-Findlay said...

Thank you thank you, Susan! My wonderful daughter in law spins and dyes the most gorgeous yarns that are a true joy to weave with!
:) Noreen