Undulating and Networked Twill Projects

The undulating twill shawl is finished and I couldn’t be happier with it!  The buttons that I ordered online were a perfect fit and the subdued copper finish on the metal buttons is a wonderful addition to the soft rust and copper tones in the shawl.  This undulating twill is a real joy to weave and has a wonderful soft drape ~ perfect for a cape or shawl.  You can’t see me, but I’m doing a happy dance!  You can see more photos here.  

At the bottom of the last post I showed you the painted silk scarf that I had just started weaving.  I have been having my recurring difficulty with weft colours.  I was sure, and I mean sure that the Azure blue weft would compliment the various purples and highlight the turquoise in the warp, well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  What the Azure did was completely masked the turquoise and hide the variegation in the purple warp.  I also found that the 2/8 grist of the tencel over powered the 2/22 silk.  

My goal was to feature the wonderful colours of the warp, so I went to my stash and found this lovely single magenta silk.  It’s probably 1/30 ish and has long slubs that appear randomly. I was sure that this fresh colour would be perfect to show off the turquoise and that it would make the purple warp glow ~ right?  Wrong.  It just covered everything up and I couldn’t even see the polka dot pattern!

After much angst I settled on using a 2/10 black tencel weft.  The black toned down the luminosity and freshness of the warp, but it shows the pattern well and showcases the warp colours beautifully.  This scarf is still on the loom so it looks a bit loosey goosey right now but once wet finished it will be a stunner.

This is not the scarf that I envisioned at all, but it’s a real beauty nonetheless.

Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving day, so, 'Happy Turkey Day Everyone!'