Exercise 4.2.1 Yarn colour placement and composition

Aims:

• explore colour translation and development in yarn design and making

• explore textures and unexpected materials in the creation of yarn concepts and designs.

I looked at the colour palette of the fabric sample and as painted out again. Colours range from creamy yellow, stronger mustard yellow with traces of red in it, a range of blues from sky to airforce to deep dark marine, to earthy brown tones and dark green-blue.

The colour palette and texture of the print made me think if some kind of land and seascape viewed from above, like a satellite image, which gives a different perspective, looking down, like viewing the tops of trees from above.

There is a mix of warm yellow and brown tones and cooler hues of blue and green.

I decided to focus on the yellow end of the colour palette for some of the yarns, and the dark blues, greens and browns for other yarns, with pops of the yellow added as highlights.

Materials included:

• wool and cotton knitting yarns

• silk and linen embroidery yarns

• nylon netting

• beads

• faux leather jewellery cord

• metallic foil.

Techniques:

• plying

• wrapping

• braiding - similar to hair braiding, using one or more strands to cover the remaining strands and create sections of colour down the length of the yarn.

Braiding and plying, focusing more on the cooler and darker tones, with accents of warmer, yellows, browns and creams:

Plying, adding beads and wrapping, focusing on yellow and golden tones:

Next I also focused on the stippled surface effect of my chosen textile piece and thought about how I could render this as yarn. Using a lemon net as a base for this yarn, I first cut short lengths of multiple yarns and knotted these, then decided to use a bulkier strand of multiple yarns and thread this through the net and knot it at intervals, planning to cut either side of each knot at the end:

Part-way through the process of making this yarn, I observed that the work in progress could go in another directions, which could potentially be more interesting.

While threading the multiple strands through the netting and knotting together I drew this, as a means of recording this part of the process, as I knew that I would be cutting these strands to form the yarn I had in mind. I later recreated this in yarn:

This reminded me of the map of the Underground, with its multicoloured lines twistind and turning. Somehow this was quite pleasing to the eye, following each line of colour on its journey.

I found it a useful technique to capture the process with photography and sketch, in order to be able to go back and recreate the early part of the process, in order to both record the process top refer back to later, but also to then take it in a different direction if I wasn't happy with my first results. I found this also took away some of the fear of 'going wrong' or 'spoiling' it.

I also then thought that the drawn yarn design lent itself to a repeating surface design, so tried this idea out by photocopying it.