Thursday, February 20, 2014

Getting closer to the top

I have been working on my small tapestry - not as much as I had hoped, mainly due to the enervating weather. The nights have been warm and that makes for restless nights.
But I am making progress. It is slow work trying to sort out all the various shades and slightly different tones. I mix the colours as I go: no, I don't do colour samples!! I am doing such small amounts of colour that I can take out parts if I don't like them. I call the whole thing my colour sample.
Actually, it is a bit like the tapestry I did recently that used up some of my thrums. I am using such small amounts of yarn that it is rather like making a thrum, I don't even have to put most of them on a bobbin.
The tapestry is about 20cm (7.8740157 inches - exactly!) wide and 15 or 16 cm (5 or 6 inches) high. Of course, that will be the other way round when I take it off the loom.

The mixing of the colours takes time; then there is the realisation that I can't finish that little bit until I have built up the nearby shape which needs to have the colours mixed first, then be woven. And THEN I can't finish that bit because another little shape intersects with that and needs to be worked out.
I find that I am doing weaving across two or three warps but have to stop all the time to make sure that I can join the shapes without having to sew up the slits. So a little bit of weaving over two or three warps has to be checked on both sides to make sure I haven't gone too far without joining them together with the larger parts of the tapestry. It is all taking time!! But I have plenty, so I should just relax and enjoy the process.

I have been taking photos each day to convince myself that I have made progress. Sometimes it is very hard to tell.

I have reached the top on one side!!!  Only a few more hours to get to the top with the rest of it. Then the tidying up.  So a bit longer yet.
If you look closely, you can see a needle through the tapestry in the right-hand side. The shadows on the path are causing me to weave it differently and it is tending to buckle. The texture on the right and left is a bit different at the moment. I hope it all comes off the loom ok.

The left-hand side is going to be the top and I can see that it is not quite straight.  I'll have to deal with that when I take it off the loom. It may not be as bad as it looks (I hope) as I seem to move the guide warp around as I weave - next time I will try using several warps on the side and see if that stops me moving it around so much. 

4 comments:

theregatha said...

congratulations, it looks great. I understand the tedium of working across just a few warps then having to go on to another little section, then back again. My colour graduation is taking sooo long because each section is only 4-5 warps wide and I am trying to link each section as I go. Problem is that I end up with quite a few lumpy sections as the interlocking seems to be much thicker.

Mary said...

Yes, theregatha, I noticed the lumpiness too. I think (hope) I have overcome that but I do notice that the beads of weaving are much larger on the right-hand side where all the changing is happening. I thing the beating down was different as well. I just hope it will be ok when I take it off the loom. It is so annoying when the lumpiness happens. I talked about it at a recent class and was advised to pull the yarn tight when turning back - without distorting the whole thing of course. Easier said than done!

mycamerandme365 said...

It's really looking great Mary! Well done.

Mary said...

Thanks, I can't wait till I get it off the loom.