Tag Archives: ball winder

And the winner is … and grayscale again

253g The first ball of yarn on the new Nancy’s Knit Knack’s ball winder. I love it! No grinding of plastic gears. This skein was 253 g and wound on easily. You can also get a motor for the winder, which I had rejected because of my tangled hand-dyed skeins. I’ll try a few more skeins on this hard worker and possibly reconsider that decision.

The piece that I’m currently working on is made up of green and blue yarns. Below are small pictures of the work, first in color, then black and white. I think it’s interesting that the 4% blue square is still visible in black and white, but the 2% blue is not. Which only means that the value (or tone) of the two colors is very close to the same of is the same. I admit that, not being an art major, I don’t know a lot about this, but there are resources online. Here’s one that I thought was good.  There is a previous post about value and some tools to use, but I think Photoshop wins overall.

Green-blue-squares

Two shades of blue, green background. 2% blue on right. Combination of 2% blue and 1% blue on left.

Green-blue-squares-Black

Two shades of blue, green background-black and white. The first section of blue disappears.

 

Preview

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue-4-percent

4% blue on green background

Blue-4-percent-black

4% blue on green background-black and white

 

 

Winter, books, museum, ball winders

Shibori-book

Shibori book

Something I’ve never done before–used the interlibrary to request a book from my local library. Wow! Worked great and fast! I can’t remember why now, because I’m probably not going to do shibori any time soon, but I put the Karen Britto book Shibori: Creating Color & Texture on Silk in one of my wishlists in Amazon. The book may be out of print, which may explain the price, but before spending $35, I wanted to see it. Thus the interlibrary. After looking at the book, I may spring for the $$$. Ms. Britto talks about the two kinds of dyes I’m currently using, but more importantly for me, there’s a chapter on using the Munsell color system. I already have those chips and would like to use them effectively. The problem for me is the dye samples. I will have to figure out some way to dye small batches of possible colors with the equipment I have. Well, and find time too.

Seems I spoke too soon about our fall weather–winter is scheduled to arrive with a vengeance tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t bring that “wintery precipitation” with the winds. The Kimbell Museum is set for members’ tours of the new Piano Pavilion. I have listened to a couple of programs about this new space on the radio. Evidently the concrete used for the walls is a special type and seems to be a better background for many of the artworks. Doens’t that sound strange? Something I’ve never thought of. Maybe I’ll get to see for myself soon.

And a totally off topic question–Do you have a ball winder recommendation? I have a really old plastic one that works, but frequently the gears click as I wind, so the writing in so on the wall. Some of these ball winders are REALLY expensive, so I want to hear feedback from anyone about ball winders.