In November, a dear friend started a conversation about a piece he wanted to commission for his lovely wife. They were going to have their first child in the spring and he wanted a special piece created for her to celebrate her first Mother’s Day.
The commission pieces I’ve accepted have been amazing to do, and those entrusting me to create something have been so generous in allowing me to design the pieces so that it feels like a wonderful collaboration.
This piece was inspired by the image I was sent of Bailey’s favorite colors.
From there, I knew I had to use a pattern that included starbursts, so I chose this one to adapt to this shawl.
Andy let me know that he wanted a piece that had an interesting pattern, and I wasn’t about to disappoint!
I found the perfect color palette in tencel, which would be silky and soft, but still hold up well to being used
I knew I wanted to begin and end this piece with that gorgeous variegated yarn, that held all the colors plus a little extra. I didn’t want harsh stripes, so I set about to use the Fibonacci number pattern to develop the striping. This gives color changes an organic flow instead of harsh blocks of color. But I had so many choices about how to do this. The start was easy, 1 string, then another 1 string, followed by 2, 3, 5, and 8.
13 is the next step in the sequence but I need more? How do I keep the math but change the size. Can I change the math? [NO!] What if I double it? That would be good but I would know I broke the pattern. I can’t live with that. What if I add a 1 to it? Then I can say the pattern turns on the 1 and goes back in reverse! That was my OMG moment. That works! It’s brilliant in its simplicity!!
Doing the maths on the warp. Had to calculate a mark for every 22 threads (22 = 1”)
Based on Fibonacci patterning:1 2 3 5 8 27 (13 + 1 for turning back + 13) 8 5 3 2 1 repeated over 7 colors.
Right brain, left brain, whole brain engaged!
I make this look easy, right? 😆
Then it was on to warping these thread. The flow of colors was magical at every step
This piece ended up on my dobby loom, needing 10 shafts, 12 treadles, and 482 threads in the warp.
Forgive the stray German Shepherd fur in the photo.
After wet finishing this piece and pressing it until it shined, I couldn’t wait to get some photos of it in the sun
The very toughest part of this whole project was not letting on that it had been made! It was nearly a 6 month secret before I mailed it off last week.
Wishing Bailey, Andy and Ruby a wonderful first Mother’s Day together! Thank you for letting me a part of your day.
Ravens Webs 
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