Serotonin weaving

[merrileemakes]

Life has been extremely fucking LIFE at the moment. So I decided to have a bit of a brain break and just weave something simple that made me happy.




I had these two balls of Abbey Road Freedom cotton yarn from Spotlight, in colourway Fads and Freckles. Even those colourway names make me smile.

I tried doing something with the blue/tan/pink (Freckles) one but the colour changes were overwhelming the pattern. And I have an idea for what to do with the cream/yellow/purple (Fads) one, but that idea is a good 3 years from fruition so I'm just going to use it now.

I started warping my rigid heddle loom with Freckles first, making a loop through every second slot in the heddle.



I then went back with the ball of Fads and filled in the missed slots, so the warp alternates between yarns.



It only took me about 45 minutes to warp up the loom! I'd forgotten how quick and easy rigid heddles are.

Here's the warp all beamed, threaded and tied on, ready to start weaving.



Jasmine approves.



And here's the warp after a bit of weaving.

I'm alternating between the two yarns after every two threads, so the weft pattern is the same as the warp pattern.

If you did this pattern in two solid coloured yarns you'd get a nice houndstooth pattern.

But changing colours every 2 threads in the warp and weft with yarns that are themselves changing colours gives a very illusive and shifting houndstooth pattern, that kinda wanders in and out.



I really like this effect of temporary houndstooth. I've woven a few different things in this style and I've loved all of them.

Here I really like the almost tartan effect of all the colours crossing themselves. You can see a few moments of houndstooth in the yellow threads.

I'm looking forward to weaving a ridiculously colourful, soft cotton hand towel.

Jasmine continues to approve.

Comments

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's turning out beautiful! I love color-changing yarns.

Re: Wow!

[merrileemakes]

Thank you! Me too, colour changing yarns are my favourite. Especially using them in weaving patterns that traditionally require high contrast colours, but colour changing makes the pattern appear and disappear.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I find color pooling to be a fascinating effect, but I lack the mathematical ability to predict it, so I just admire it when I see it.

Re: Wow!

[merrileemakes]

I don't have the dedication to maintain perfect tension to get the colourpooling effect, but I also admire it. If you'd just like to play with the concept there are many online colourpooling generators/planning tools: https://magicneedles.in/blogs/guide-more/what-is-planned-pooling and https://mathgrrl.com/crochet-color-pooling/ are both great, and https://plannedpooling.com/ is the original.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Thank you! I'm sharing these with my audience.

[gs_silva]

That's coming out really nice. And I love the process walkthrough with photos. It's educational!

[merrileemakes]

Thank you. 💜 I started teaching rigid heddle weaving a few months ago and my earlier blog posts helped me develop my teaching.

[sister_raphael]

Aw Good girl, Jasmine helper kitty! It's nice to turn your brain off and just take time to breathe and do something nice. It's a lovely pattern!

[merrileemakes]

Jasmine is a helper/hinder kitty in equal parts, but is always cute about it.

[yourlibrarian]

Interesting to see the process! And fun that Jasmine joins in 🙂

[merrileemakes]

Jasmine loves yarn and fibre almost as much as I do!