2nd Quarter Challenge Guest Post
Today we have a Guest post by Leonor from Felt Buddies:
A few days ago, I decided to respond to this quarter’s challenge and make a colour palette out of a favourite picture of mine. I decided to go with one of my cat Squish.
I used Color Palette FX. If you are using an image of something real, you can almost make sure the colours will go well with each other in different ways and thus have a nice palette to work with.
In our daily lives we get so used to just looking at things with narrow focus – my cat is black, his eyes are yellow, plants are green, light is white. But if I take the time to actually notice things properly, I’ll see that there is depth to his black, with purples and blues showing, and his eyes have a beautiful green popping out. The plants are at least three tones of green and the reds and oranges just catch your eye. And look, the light is white, ecru, and yellow.
This is the result of the website’s narrowing of colours, still probably more than I’d notice with a naked eye.
The next step would be to choose the colours and the medium to work them. I went with a limited palette of the closest colours I had in my fibre stash. Below, starting on the bottom left: sari silk waste, natural white mohair, three batches of merino (purple, mint green and forest green), short silk fibres and dyed bamboo.
Then it was drum carder fun. I had to decide how to layer the fibres: most of the merino was placed first and then I added the other fibres, placing some in between the wool layers as well.
More fibre added. I just kept adding fibre until I ran out of merino (or the drum was full, whichever came first. It was the former.)
The bottom of the batt…
…and here the top of the batt is in all its glory. I really like how it turned out.
The finished item. That top left pile is fibre I took out of the drum carder when I was done.
My next step is to spin this, but as always, I still fear my spinning knowledge won’t do it justice, so I suspect it might stay in my stash for a while. Here’s hoping for some (near) future courage…
How about you, what are your plans for this quarterly challenge?
19 thoughts on “2nd Quarter Challenge Guest Post”
I think it’s a great idea to analyse photos in this way – you are so right about the colours we don’t see.
The batt looks beautiful.
Thanks, Lyn 🙂
another gorgeous batt! love how its a fluffy representation of Squish too, needs to be made into something very special <3 xxx
Hey, Nikki! Thanks 🙂 Squish is indeed fluffy, and I love how this image came out. I guess the “made into something special” is what’s making me nervous, what if I fail?… x
Lovely photo of Squish and gorgeous batt! 🙂
Thank you, Zed 🙂 Now to hope I get to make something nice of it (the batt – Squish is already hopeless in that regard, haha!) 🙂
Zed, a fantastic batt indeed.. The colors are vibrant and gorgeous.. You put locks in this batt??? Big smile…
Not me, Judy. It’s a guest post from Leonor.
Hi, Judy. Thanks! I put mohair locks in the batt, I have no idea how they’ll spin up but I’m hoping for some nice textures.
You created a beautiful batt! And yes, I find it so intriguing how we do not see all of the present colors with our naked eyes.
Makes you think how a tiger or a bee see the world, doesn’t it? 🙂 Thanks for the compliment!
Leonor, the batt is spectacular such vibrant color and textures. I can’t wait to see how you use it. Lately, I’ve been making and using more striped batts. It is fun.
Thanks, Marilyn 🙂 I had a lot of fun with it, and it certainly made me more confident in the use of textures and different fibres in batts. Let’s see if I do it justice… For now it’ll just stay pretty as is!
Let me know what you’ve been making with the striped batts!
Leonor – thanks for your post and taking the time to do the challenge. It is very interesting how close you have to look to really see all of the colors that are present. I think it is the difference between “looking” and “really seeing”. Your batt is gorgeous and I hope you will go ahead and “give it a spin” because fear of failing shouldn’t stop you. As long as you are learning and moving forward, then you aren’t failing anyways. I don’t think we should let our “beautiful” supplies not be used because we’re afraid we won’t do them justice. As Nike says “Just Do It”. 🙂
Thanks, Ruth! It’s such a silly fear, isn’t it? It’s not like the sheep won’t be making more yarn, or that I won’t be able to make more batts… It took me forever to pick up my wheel again after a three-month hiatus because I just felt I’d mess everything up! ‘
There’s more fibre out there’ is my new motto, if I make a mistake I’m still learning…. I need to ‘Just Do It’ indeed! 😊
Thanks for doing the challenge and the post Leonor. It’s fun to they the different generators and see how they pick up colours you didn’t see. Your bat is beautiful and I am sure it will look great spun up. I hope you share the resulting yarn with us.
Thanks, Ann! I actually tried different generators, but this was the one that spoke to me the most. I’m looking forward to spinning this batt, let’s see how it turns out! I’ll be more than happy to share the results 🙂
how can anything be a failure when its done with love?!?!
Hah, I wish that were true, Nikki! But you know what I’m talking about, you perfectionist you 🙂