Readers' Showcase: Handspun Summer Garden Wrap

摘要

The colours of the natural world continually inspire me. On walks I frequently analyse why certain colour combinations are so pleasing to my eye; is it their tones, juxtaposition, or relative proportions? Preparing work for the Certificate of Achievement in Spinning last year, it was inevitable that the design focus of my test piece would be colour. In early summer my cottage garden is a multitude of foliage greens contrasting with pastel flower colours. These pale colours are enhanced by the adjacent dark shadows. As silk is one of my favourite fibres, I chose to spin, dye and weave a silk wrap in the colours of my garden. I worsted spun a two-ply sample of thickness 30wpi (wraps per inch) from tussah silk tops and wove two small samples in herringbone twill, at 20epi (ends per inch) and 17.5epi. After finishing, the latter sett was preferred, to maximise the drape.