# Weaving- Deciding on colors



## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

I fell in love with the shawl on the cover of Yarn Barn's catalog called Gotta Touch Me Shawl just days before leaving for the yarn fest in Salida Colorado in September. I tried to estimate the amount of yarn I would need to search for yarn at the yarn fest. And I found what I wanted! I picked out a deep red color for the weft and part of the warp and four additional warp accent colors: gold, ivory, olive, and dark brown. 

After trying to make up the pattern from the picture, I found I could order the pattern only from Yarn Barn for only $5 as opposed to the kit for $90. Better to spend $5 than mess up over $60 of yarn and it was 30% off. 

My DH has a good eye for color and he said he thought I was using too many colors. My girlfriend and I were sure all the colors would look great. Hmmm, what to do. 

So, I'll tell you how I decided in the event this might work for you, too. I got out my little Jim Hockett hand held loom and wrapped several versions of warp colors and that helped me decide. Much better than measuring warp, spending all the time getting it on the loom, all the time weaving to find out I wasn't happy with the outcome. 

I decided on the one with olive and brown because the color values were similar. The gold was too bright and while I liked the ivory, somehow it wasn't right. Here are the pictures.


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

I'm no help I like all three. lol lol.


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

mama879 said:


> I'm no help I like all three. lol lol.


Well, you're no help. ???? You know that is meant as a joke, I hope. Turns out I didn't have enough dark brown and found something in my stash.


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## AiLin (Dec 28, 2012)

What a great idea for trying out your colours. I think my choice would depend on what I plan to wear with it. The other clothes would bring out you accent colours. 

I do not weave or spin, but am enjoying these posts. Someday, I would love to spin and weave. I know that I would enjoy it TOO much. :sm09:


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

AiLin said:


> What a great idea for trying out your colours. I think my choice would depend on what I plan to wear with it. The other clothes would bring out you accent colours.
> 
> I do not weave or spin, but am enjoying these posts. Someday, I would love to spin and weave. I know that I would enjoy it TOO much. :sm09:


Thank you, AiLin. I get great satisfaction from weaving, and frustration, too! It is a big investment to find that something isn't working. That is why I have forced myself not to just jump right in. Unlike knitting, I feel that I can do that.


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## wordancer (May 4, 2011)

I like the olive and brown too. Way smart to test out color combos before do all the work/money to get to the weaving part.
It's like you are doing little swatches.


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## desireeross (Jun 2, 2013)

wordancer said:


> I like the olive and brown too. Way smart to test out color combos before do all the work/money to get to the weaving part.
> It's like you are doing little swatches.


Agree, I like the olive green and brown


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## mousepotato (May 30, 2011)

I'm going to make a suggestion here for any of us who need to see if the colors we hope to use work together without huge amounts (even small amounts) of work, actually two suggestions. One: go to the hardware store and buy a peephole viewer, you know, those things that go through a door to see who's on the other side. Put it together (it's two pieces that screw into one another), put your yarn colors out on a table, plain surface, lined up together, look through the wrong end (the outside part) at your yarns. If any of the colors jump out at you, try something different. Two: find yourself a piece of red cellophane, or a clear, piece of plastic colored red. Again, line up your yarns and look through the cellophane. Again, if anything jumps out at you, try something else. The viewer gives you distance and perspective, the red gives you whether or not your hues are compatible. Both are relatively cheap compared to the hours of spinning, weaving, knitting, or crocheting an item. This comes from my rug hooking days.

I heard about this once before many years ago. Thanks for refreshing my memory.


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

mousepotato said:


> I'm going to make a suggestion here for any of us who need to see if the colors we hope to use work together without huge amounts (even small amounts) of work, actually two suggestions. One: go to the hardware store and buy a peephole viewer, you know, those things that go through a door to see who's on the other side. Put it together (it's two pieces that screw into one another), put your yarn colors out on a table, plain surface, lined up together, look through the wrong end (the outside part) at your yarns. If any of the colors jump out at you, try something different. Two: find yourself a piece of red cellophane, or a clear, piece of plastic colored red. Again, line up your yarns and look through the cellophane. Again, if anything jumps out at you, try something else. The viewer gives you distance and perspective, the red gives you whether or not your hues are compatible. Both are relatively cheap compared to the hours of spinning, weaving, knitting, or crocheting an item. This comes from my rug hooking days.


Great ideas!

Thanks to those who commented on the red/olive/brown combo!


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## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

mousepotato said:


> I'm going to make a suggestion here for any of us who need to see if the colors we hope to use work together without huge amounts (even small amounts) of work, actually two suggestions. One: go to the hardware store and buy a peephole viewer, you know, those things that go through a door to see who's on the other side. Put it together (it's two pieces that screw into one another), put your yarn colors out on a table, plain surface, lined up together, look through the wrong end (the outside part) at your yarns. If any of the colors jump out at you, try something different. Two: find yourself a piece of red cellophane, or a clear, piece of plastic colored red. Again, line up your yarns and look through the cellophane. Again, if anything jumps out at you, try something else. The viewer gives you distance and perspective, the red gives you whether or not your hues are compatible. Both are relatively cheap compared to the hours of spinning, weaving, knitting, or crocheting an item. This comes from my rug hooking days.
> 
> I heard about this once before many years ago. Thanks for refreshing my memory.


Great ideas! Thank you so much.


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

Can we see the original shawl picture?


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

mama879 said:


> Can we see the original shawl picture?


Here is a picture from Yarn Barn's catalog. Where the picture shows a pumpkin color is where I will use the olive.

The piece in the background is a table runner I wove, just FYI.


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

Oh I really like that. It is going to be wonderful.


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

mama879 said:


> Oh I really like that. It is going to be wonderful.


Thanks, you can see why I fell in love with it!


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

Oh I can. It looks so pretty and your yarn choices are great to.


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## Babalou (Jun 3, 2012)

mama879 said:


> Oh I can. It looks so pretty and your yarn choices are great to.


Thanks!


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