With infinite options for playing with colour, enjoy the interactions between fifteen hues of a spectrum with the Colour Gamp Shawl. Working with gradient mini-skein sets or limiting your selections to just analogous colours, this handwoven gamp is designed to allow you to see how colours mix and blend together. Explore the depth and richness that can be made when you overlap colours from seemingly opposite sides of the colour wheel!
HANDWOVEN COLOUR & OPTICAL MIXING
The Colour Gamp was one of the very first projects woven in the School of SweetGeorgia, woven for Felicia Lo’s Handwoven Colour online weaving course. The focus of this series is on working with colour and how we can incorporate handpainted and hand-dyed yarns into our handwoven projects.
The purpose of the Colour Gamp was to teach optical mixing — how all of the 15 hues used in both the project mix and blend in a plain weave structure. This is a big, broad, exciting area to play in as there are so many things we can do with optical mixing. Of course the best way to learn about how colour works in weaving is to actually weave with it. Making observations and then using those observations to inform our next projects. This project is a great way to explore how your chosen colour palette interacts with each other… a fantastic, and fun, learning tool!
CONSIDERATIONS FOR EPI & SETT
Woven on a Schacht Baby Wolf floor loom at 10 ends per inch, the finished Colour Gamp shawl has a beautiful drape that feels soft and luscious. In Felicia’s Which Reed Should I Use vlog episode, she talks about considerations to make when choosing which reed to use for your weaving project. How changing the sett can affect the feeling of your finished piece.
There are a number of other handwoven projects shown in the video which all use fingering-weight, knitting yarn as the warp, ranging from 10 to 20 ends per inch (epi). Felicia also includes her thought process behind designing these projects, and how we can use one project to inform the choices we make for the next.
If you are interested in exploring more weaving content, we invite you to come and join us at the School of SweetGeorgia. There you can find a range of online weaving courses and pattern inspiration meant for weavers at every level. Whether you are working on a rigid heddle or multi-shaft loom, there is something for everyone. We hope to see you inside the School!
Handwoven Colour Gamp Shawl
Equipment
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1 4-shaft loom with a minimum 26" / 66 cm weaving width
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1 10-dent reed
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1 boat or stick shuttle
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1 reed hook
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1 heddle hook
Materials
- 1 set SweetGeorgia Party of Five / Tough Love Sock mini-skein set in Emerald *see yardage notes below
- 1 set SweetGeorgia Party of Five / Tough Love Sock mini-skein set in Gemstone
- 1 set SweetGeorgia Party of Five / Tough Love Sock mini-skein set in Tanzanite
Instructions
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Download and learn more about weaving a Colour Gamp shawl at Felicia Lo's Handwoven Colour course at the School of SweetGeorgia, available for download by SOS members.
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Wind a 2.67 yd / 2.45 m warp with the warp yarn using a warping board or mill, following the order listed in the pattern. Complete the steps for dressing your loom.
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Wind the bobbins with the weft yarns for a boat shuttle. Weave a plain weave header to spread the warp.
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Begin weaving with the weft yarn and hemstitch the beginning edge. Change weft colours colours with every 16 to 18 picks.
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Cut the shawl off the loom, finishing the ends as desired. In this case, I finished each edge with hemstitching.
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Wet-finish the towels and roll in an absorbent towel to remove excess moisture. Hang over a towel bar to dry. Press very gently with a warm iron, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- Weave Structure: Plain weave
- Warp Length: 2.67 yd / 2.45 m (includes 20″ / 51 cm of loom waste
- Warp Yarn: Approx. 680 yards of SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock (425 yd / 388 m per 4oz / 115 g skein; 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon) in 15 hues. Plus approximately 35 yards of a dark hue for selvedges and border.
- Weft Yarn: Approx. 710 yards of SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock (425 yd / 388 m per 4oz / 115 g skein; 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon) in 15 hues.
- Finished/Blocked Dimensions: 21 3/4 inches (55 cm) wide x 63 3/4 inches (162 cm) long, not including fringe.
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