Blue Chameleon

I have been using stash yarns all year (so far) and I noticed that I must have six shades of blue, so I reached in and grabbed a cone and out came royal blue.   Its a rather intense brilliant blue.  It was also known as Lapis Lazuli and was quite rare; so rare that only royalty could wear it.  There is an amazing history of the colour, along with others, in this book: Colour: Journey through the Paintbox Colour.   It gives you the history behind all colours used for decorations, painting and jewellery.

I searched through my files and found this lovely, almost 3D effect pattern from handweaving.net  ##70110.  I modified it to create an edge border and tried it out in blue.

While not quite as brilliant a blue as the program,  the 8/2 tencel paired with black as weft produced a nice crisp design that is full reversible.  The treadling was easy to memorize and so it went along quickly.   

We had company for a week and from time to time I thought about my choices for the second scarf.  It had to be something equally bright ?   Opposites from the colour wheel? (which is orange)

This picture sort of threw me for a bit. I thought there was something wrong with the image but after carefully examining it, I realized that it was iridescence.... of a darker kind! There are some areas of plain weave within this twill and so the shadow effect is actually a black sheen where they interact.

We were having some incredibly bright sunshine but it bleached everything out so I resorted to shooting indoors and fighting with the flash instead.   These pictures should be enough to give you the diamonds versus leaf shapes, the sheen of the tencel, intensity of the blue and drape of the scarf.

... and with the sunshine pushing through, just how fine the cloth is.

For the second scarf I selected dark teal and at first I was disappointed.   I covered the portion of the black weft scarf that still showed on the cloth roll and took another long look.   The royal claimed the blue tones in the dark teal ..... and left behind a green!

Its also a more subtle effect where the light plays on the cloth and reveals the pattern and the melded mix of colour.   I liked it even more than the first scarf actually!   And like most favourites in a family, it had more pictures taken of it....

Yes, I will try this pattern again sometime; its a keeper!  Satisfying on many levels.....

The loom is already loaded for a pair of shawls again.... with a shawl commission to weave after that.  I had to order in yarns for the client, but everything else is from the stash.    I'm weaving slower as I'm also looking after hubby who had (very painful) spinal stenosis and is waiting to see a neuro-surgeon for a possible back operation.  Fair turn around as he looked after me through two surgeries in 2014 and 2015.  I've put my foot reconstruction surgery on hold for now.... which is another reason why I'm weaving slower!

Now, slow is not a word I would use around our two grandchildren! They are growing up so fast....

Ethan: April 2012

and now....

....getting his eleventh Brazilian jiujitsu  belt; age 6

Madison  March 2015

And now she is 3 1/2 and just had her first day of (play) school and loving it.