Colour Adventure

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Noro Ito-so many colours!

Noro Ito-so many colours!

This will not be a post about colour theory or how to put colours together or even how colours work in weaving. Because I’m really not good at putting colours together. I’m better than I used to be but I’m really conservative in colour choices. Usually I pick a variegated yarn and pair it with a solid colour that appears in the variegated skein. Lately however I’ve been pondering Noro yarns. Somehow, there are a million colours in one skein and it works! Is it just because someone else put the colours together or is it because all colours go together?

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Tea towels are my favourite experimental projects so I decided to try putting colours together. I’ve also been fascinated by the table cloths at a local restaurant…lots of bright colours in no seeming order. So I decided to warp my floor loom for table runners and placemats, and my rigid heddle with tea towels. I knew I wanted 8 colours for my floor loom so I gathered all my 4/8 cotton and started playing. I lined them all up and picked my favourites. Then I took out the ones that seemed “wrong” and added some that looked “right” . I looked for a balance of light, dark and made sure I had a bright pop. I shuffled the order, checked colour scale, added, took out, wished for another colour, determined I did not need to buy more and rearranged some more. It was fun! And I‘m really happy with the results. I even did a little sample to try a couple different weft colours!

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After success on the floor loom I found choosing colours for the rigid heddle much easier. This time I gathered all my 2/8 cotton and picked a main colour. The main colour sandwiches each of the other colours so it was easier to pick colours. Again, I lined everything up, added, took away (and wished for more colours). This time when I warped I did it completely random. The blue main colour was the constant, everything else was random. Again, I love the result! I will certainly be trying to more!

So the lesson? Be brave with colour, play and just have fun. It is just string after all!

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