I noticed that I often us a simple shading technique when weaving. I like to do it when my colors are looking too flat or if I am trying to get a color of yarn that is different then the colors that I have.
I wove up five different yarn combos that I’ve used in the past to show you what I mean by adding simple shading. Each of these combos are made by using two different colored threads that compliment each other and weaving them up together as if they are one thread.
For each color sample I wove some rows of just color 1, then wove some rows of color 1 and color 2 together, then wove some rows of just color 2. I did this to see how the colors look by themselves and how they look when woven together.
My favorite thing to do is combine two colored yarns that are very close in color. This adds a real subtle difference in the color of the woven yarn, but gives it more visual interest. I often will take a navy blue and weave it with a denim blue yarn. Separate, these two colors are very different, but when woven together they blend really well and the difference between the colors is really subtle. When they are woven by themselves their colors can be flat looking, but woven together adds more dimension to the color. The navy blue is the dominate color and the denim is more of a highlight.
My next combo was of white yarn and a variegated grey yarn. Next to each other these yarns are very different colors, but when I combine them they are close enough in tone that they really work well together. The white by itself is so flat, but with the variegated grey it becomes much more interesting. My grey yarn is lace weight which so when it’s paired with the white yarn, the white yarn becomes the dominate colors with shades of grey.
My third color combo is one that I’ve used in the past is when I wanted a peach colored yarn, but didn’t have any in my yarn stash. I ended up using a pale pink yarn and a coral yarn. Woven together they aren’t quite peach, but they kind of imply a peachy pink color. These two yarns are about the same weight and are both strong colors, so neither really becomes dominate over the other. They are also very different and the fact that I used two different yarns really stands out, unlike my other combos which are more complimentary. Even though the two threads are much more obvious, I still like the look of it.
My fourth color combo is between a deep purple yarn and a yarn that is a variegated purple with some pops of yellow and blue in it. These two yarns together look really great. Even when the variegated yarn turns yellowish, it still looks great next to the deep purple and gives it really interesting shading. The variegated purple yarn is lace weight and so it adds highlights of color to the deep purple yarn.
My fifth combo is a mustard yellow and a variegated mustard yellow. This is another combo I use a lot because the two yarns are so close in color that when they are combined the color changes is super subtle. When woven separately the mustard yellow is very flat and the variegated yellow has obvious lines of color change in it. But when woven together you can barely tell there are two different yarns there. The color changes in the two yarns are so subtle that the mustard yellow just appears to have more dimension to it.
Have you tried this before in your own weavings? Sometimes I’ll weave a solid block of the color, like the navy blue and then add some parts where the denim blue is woven with the navy blue. This also adds more visual dimension to my weaves. What are some color combos you might play around with in your own weavings?
Happy Weaving!
Kate
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