Oh, Hot!!

The temperature, that is. It's rare I work up a sweat in my basement workshop, but today I did. Which was nice because I've been dismayed at how unproductive I've been this year; my not-real-un-wellness is tiresome. 

I finished threading yesterday and sampled some weft colors. I had intended to use just one color, the pale teal around the middle, for the first piece and only wanted to know what to use for the second.  Except I liked the darker teal, second from the top, better so I decided on that for the first piece. I thought it best to sleep on it.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well I could see the design using bouclé, (pink. and purple/green variegated towards the top.) I don't know what I'll do with the second piece yet.

So I started out with the darker teal, but the color interactions were boring I decided to change weft colors. Looking back, I should have changed colors more frequently, as in the sample, but too late. I'm nearly done weaving the first piece. 

It's been a while since I've woven big designs so I'm enjoying that, but the color combinations/proportions are too simplistic; I kept thinking of including the word "toy" in naming this piece. The bottom picture shows the colors more accurately than the top, but it's even less saturated. All these colors can be seen in any old New Zealand beach in the summer. 

I've usually used this warp yarn at 18EPI to full fully, but this was sleyed at 20EPI because 18EPI makes the piece too wide to weave comfortably. In combination with the dull possum/merino/silk weft, this made the warp yarn's sheen more noticeable, and the weft PMS pucker more even before washing. I'm not sure if the finished cloth will be as fluffy as this combination usually does, but I'm looking forward to the shine/dull contrast.

Confession: this is a short warp, for only two pieces, with not much allowance for sampling, so after checking the color combination in the wee sample, I didn't cut if off and wash but started the piece immediately.

I had a tentative draft for the second piece but I don't like it so I need to make one tonight.