Did you know that you can create an infinite number of beautiful handwoven designs with just a few color “recipes”? When I say “recipe,” I don’t mean rigid formulas, but foundational patterns as flexible as a chef’s recipe for soup stock – a solid, simple base that can be modified in millions of ways to create your own beautiful, unique designs. Not only that, but these basic patterns can be combined with each other to create endless options. In the Handweaving Academy, we’ll be offering a series of classes with color recipes, with exercises that show you how to use them and the chance to get ..read more

It’s happened to all of us. You buy a box of yarn sight unseen on Facebook or eBay, or pick up a “bargain” at an estate sale, or maybe you just stumble across a cone of yarn you bought eight years ago and wonder, “What WAS I thinking??? I can’t stand that color – how am I ever going to use it??” Well, before you regift that yarn, stuff a pillow with it, or throw it away, here are a few ideas for how to use (and love!) it in your weaving! Strategies for weaving with a color you can’t stand There are basically two ways to use a color you don’t like. The first is to make it less conspicuous in th ..read more

Choosing a color palette for a project – how exciting, and yet how daunting a task it can be! Pick the right colors and you get something gorgeous; pick the wrong ones, and you wind up with mud. Or so it seems. Here are three questions that will help demystify choosing a palette. I teach more on this in my class Make Your Colors Sing, which will become available as a self-paced class later this spring. Question #1: Colors: Bright or dull? The first question weavers often ask is “Will my warp and weft colors mix into bright or dull colors? A detailed explanation of color mixing is the subject o ..read more

So far in this series of articles, we’ve discussed the first two pillars of understanding color mixing in handweaving: how to tell if a draft will blend colors or keep them separate, and what other factors, such as yarn size, viewing distance, and pattern scale, influence whether your yarn colors will blend together or stay separate. But what color do you get if your yarn colors do mix? That’s the third pillar of color mixing in weaving, and is the subject of this article.  If you want to predict what colors you’ll get and avoid muddy colors in your handweaving, you’ll want to read this a ..read more

(This is the second in a three-part of a series of articles explaining how color mixing works in handwoven cloth. If you read all three articles, you’ll understand the basic principles of how and why colors mix the way they do in weaving. No more muddy cloth! If you want to dive deeper into design, I recommend my course Make Your Colors Sing the next time I offer it – it offers much more in-depth coverage of color mixing, hands-on exercises, and lots of information on visual design in handwoven cloth.) In my previous color article, I talked about the first of the three fundamental principles o ..read more

Have you ever wondered why the same two yarns can weave into dramatically different colors of cloth? If you use two very different colors, like blue and orange, you might get anything from brilliant patches of blue and orange to disappointing mud – or anything in between. twill blocks swatch woven with blue and orange yarns plain weave swatch woven with blue and orange yarns The secret is in your choice of draft. In this article, I’ll explain the three different kinds of drafts, their effects on color, and how to identify and work with each type of draft. The three types of draft There are t ..read more

One of the amazing things about working with color is how wildly different a look you can get using the same color patterning in warp and weft, simply by tweaking the draft. Often, you don’t even need to change the threading or treadling – a quick change in tie-up can produce a totally different look! Believe it or not, these three drafts are all created using the same threading, treadling, and color patterning in warp and weft. The only thing that’s changed is the tie-up! Lest you think this is only true with complex drafts, here is the difference between 1/3, 2/2, and 3/1 twill, using t ..read more

One of the more interesting kinds of alternating thread gradients is the curved gradient, which creates the illusion of a three-dimensional fabric. It’s a type of gradient that you don’t see often, but it’s a very interesting one, so I thought I’d share details on it with you. How they’re made The simplest color gradients are made with two colors. They start off with pure Color A in the center, then change very gradually from Color A to Color B in the center area. Then, towards the edges, they change very quickly from Color A to about 50/50 Color A and Color B. If there is a substantial diffe ..read more

Have you ever been struck by the gorgeous colors in a rainbow shawl? Or envied the beauty of a double-gradient scarf? Color gradients are not only beautiful, but amazingly useful in handweaving because they are simple to design and don’t require a ton of shafts to produce. In fact, you can create beautiful color gradients on just two shafts (or a rigid heddle loom)! This lovely cowl was woven on a rigid heddle loom: Got more shafts and more colors?  You can do more! Here is a four shaft gradient project: Color gradients also don’t require knowing a ton of color theory to produce lovel ..read more

It happens a LOT. You go to a yarn shop or knitting conference, and you encounter those magical walls of luscious hand-dyed knitting yarns. Next thing you know, you’ve got a bag full of multicolored skeins. Can you weave with them? And WHAT can you weave with them? The bad news is that hand-dyed knitting yarns often aren’t designed with weaving in mind, so the bright colors in a knitting yarn often muddy up into dull colors when woven together, even if they look great in a knitted project. In this blog post, I’ll explain why this happens, and two ways to fix the problem. Here’s the first probl ..read more