Monday, May 28, 2007

The Rejected Twill

Here's the twill pattern I decided not to use. I was trying to shift the warp threads so the ikat design would be something like the letter 'N'. I shifted the twill direction to make it stand out more. After weaving a bit I realized I wan't trilled about this twill pattern in ikat - a bit old fashion.

Ater I wove about six inches with the white ikat design I decided I didn't like the contrast between the white and the dark purple [which looks brown in the photo] so I decided to dye the white - golden yellow. I dyed both the woven part and the next six inches of the unwoven warp on the loom to see if there would be a big difference in the end product.

Once finished weaving, I painted the entire piece with a 2:1 water:white vinegar mix, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in my old crock pot.

In the end, the dye took well on both parts and kept most of its color even after washing in the washing machine. There does seem to be a richer golden yellow color on the part that was woven then dyed vs. dyed then woven. Most troubling was the yellow stripe of dark dye in the middle of the piece...

1 comment:

Merna said...

Glad the dye- weave - vinegar worked out.

I don't get "... the yellow stripe of dark dye in the middle of the piece", though. Does that show on the photo? What's next?