Color Blending Class and the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl

Sunday afternoon was so cool. I just recently joined the Essex County Spinning Guild, and we had a class on Color Blending with Julie Gerow from Foxcross Farms. It was fascinating! I've played a little with dyeing yarn and fiber (with a few nice results, and quite a few not so nice results! So far, my best results usually involve a crock pot.) but had never really done anything with regards to fiber blending.

It was amazing what we were able to accomplish in just a few hours. Of course, my poor husband may be regretting it b/c now I finally have a need for wool combs! I showed him a picture, and he asked "What kind of medieval torture device is that?!?!?".

After a general overview of some basic color theory, we spend most of the time playing and mixing fibers.

I'll warn you now, the following is pretty picture heavy, but it is kind of cool to see the transitions. So, we got this to start with this:











And turned it into this....


The first picture is obviously a color wheel. All of the lower colors are created just by hand mixing each of the primary colors together.

And the second one is a series of exercises playing with tints, hues and mixing in complementary colors. I still have a few more left in the exercise (plus a few others I'd like to do on my own) for this one...


Then we got to play with the combs and mix colors together. We were brought to a table that had pretty much ALL of the Ashland Bay solid colors and told to pick 4. I was in an earthy mood, so this is what I selected...



Using the combs (which I'm REALLY bad at right now!) and a diz, this is what I came up with in a very short period of time. It was amazing some of the other color combo's that were chosen, and how they came out!

So, last night, I sat down with my beautiful new spindle (since the spinning wheel is currently occupied w/ the tropical targhee, and I didn't feel like moving it off). I'm still a not that great at using a spindle -- it takes a bit more coordination that I apparently lack -- but I did quickly spin and ply a small sample to create a miniskein, to see how it looked. It came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself! (well, excepting the lousy spinning job!)



And finally, my biggest achievement of the week... I finished the knitting part of the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. This is the unblocked version. Tonight, I get to try my first blocking... we'll see how it goes!



Oh and in answer to Sarah's question about the slippers... yes, I did consider using handspun. That was my original plan, actually. But I was in a hurry to get them done, and I've been having too much fun with the Targhee... so commercial yarn it is!


And Carole, yes I did use the LTK pattern for the toddler slippers. I wasn't completely thrilled with the results. They were a little too squared for my tastes. But since I knew no one would probably use them, I wasn't too worried! And yes, they did turn out a bit wide and short. The wide wasn't too big of a deal b/c my daughter has very wide feet, but the short would have been. The one time I got them on her, I could tell they'd only fit for a short time.

I do also have the Fiber Trends pattern, but I think I'll probably end up doing an amalgam. Especially since I found these really cool soles that are fleece lined (http://www.paradisefibers.net/Fleece-Lined-Suede-Slipper-Soles-p/3630.htm). So I really only need to do the tops of the slippers.


And finally, Carole, thanks for the tip on the 100purewool. I already suspected that it would shrink more than usual, so I already did a test swatch first and felted it. Then I'll kind of create my own pattern as I go, using my felted gauge and the other two patterns as guides. We'll see how it turns out! I'm still not quite ready to return to that project.

Next up is another pair of pants (in BFL this time!) for my daughter since she decided to reject the other pair!