The leaves are changing. In fact, after the snow we had last week, they’re probably mostly done. I’ve taken a few high-altitude hikes lately to enjoy them and found the colors inspiring for a tapestry design. Of course the design process always starts with photos when it involves a place I’ve been though sometimes the final weaving looks nothing at all like the photo. I’m usually interested in the feeling of the place more than depicting it in woven form. These sorts of inspirations usually get approached first in my tapestry diary.
The end of September we went to Pingree Park (those of you who come to my CSU Mountain Campus retreats know it well). There is a broad swath of aspens surrounding the campus and they were brilliantly yellow and orange that week. I was still pretty tired from my east coast trip, so we only hiked about 6 miles through the leaves enjoying the sunshine.
September leaves at Pingree Park, CO
Spinning at Cirque Meadows with the Mummy Range in the background. #colorado
The next weekend I did something I’ve always wanted to do. The idea was prompted by a short article in my local paper about Fall River Road closing for the season the following Monday. Our earlier weekend plans were cancelled by a fire, so I jumped on this idea to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and drive up Fall River Road in my Subaru Crosstrek which was totally up to the challenge. For years I thought you needed four wheel drive to do it and at those moments didn’t have such a vehicle. But recently I realized that even passenger cars with a careful driver can make it up the dirt one-way road. It travels from Horseshoe Meadows 9 miles straight up to the Alpine Visitor’s Center at 11,700 feet elevation.
If that Dodge Caravan can make it, so can my Subaru.
Near the top of Fall River Road in RMNP, above treeline
After seeing all those beautiful leaves and then experiencing the dump of snow the next week, I wanted to weave a reminder or two. I started with a small piece, tapestry diary size. That means it is completely without pressure and if it doesn’t spark more ideas for a bigger piece, that is totally fine!
I had picked up some leaves and had some nice photos, so I wanted to make sure to get some colors that actually looked like what I saw on the hikes. I printed out a few photos, glued down the leaves after pressing them, and did some yarn wraps with colors that I thought would work.
As I was looking for colors for some of the trees, I used these small skeins to see what would happen if I bundled them. In this case these colors blended well and I’ll probably use the combination. (To make a finger skein like this, just take a length of your yarn bundle about 8-10 inches long. I leave it attached to the source. Fold it around your index finger. Trap the bundle of ends in your other hand, then twirl the other finger around and around to add twist. Take your finger out keeping hold of the ends of the yarn and smooth the bundle. You should have a little skein that looks like the photo below.)
Using finger skeins to blend yarns while looking for colors for a new tapestry.
Blending colors in finger skeins to see what will work in a new tapestry.
Yarn wraps can be really helpful to see what color combinations you might want to use for a piece. There are many ways to use them. Sometimes I do them just to note what colors I used in a tapestry for reference later! But usually I use them to see what colors might work next to each other, to move palettes on each card around and see what other hues I might use, or to blend yarns together on the card to get a feel for how a weft bundle would look. I often leave tails on purpose especially when mixing colors because it is very difficult to tell what colors they were if the tails of yarns that are mixed are not available for comparison. These yarns are all by weaversbazaar.
Yarn wraps for the leaves tapestry.
Yarn wraps for a proposed tapestry about fall leaves in Colorado along with the yarns I chose. I may not use all of these colors in the small diary weaving.
I’ve warped my favorite little pipe loom for this project. The first iteration (and I’m not committing to any beyond that) is just 2 x 3.25 inches and is for my tapestry diary. I have the loom warped and I’m ready to weave.
Fringeless warp with jig still on. Yes, that is Connie Lippert’s biography underneath it—such a great tapestry weaver!*
Fringeless warp ready to weave. This loom is tiny—about 7 inches wide. This piece will be about 2 x 3.15 inches when finished. That was the size of the holes in my jig.
After driving up Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove down the west side of the park to a hike along the headwaters of the Colorado River. It is just a little babbling brook up here, but it feeds a whole lot of people later on. This hike only had small stands of aspen here and there, but I found myself fascinated with the view across the valley. There is a lot of beetle killed spruce and pine in this area of Colorado and the hillside on the other side of the Colorado was about half standing dead trees interspersed with deep green pines and flares of yellow and red aspens. These views were the inspiration for the first diary weaving I want to do. The photo isn’t great as it was nearing sunset and I was facing directly into the sun, but you get the idea.
Headwaters of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Aspens among the beetle-killed spruce and pine.
And these chickens were spotted at the LuLu City Site—an old mining town which is pretty much completely gone now. It was a gold rush town and existed from 1879-1884 before it faded away again. Only the chickens and this sign remain.
LuLu City Site chickens. #mochimochiland
We’ve already had some snow and soon we won’t get any more 60-70 degree days for this year. Time to do some weaving.
*Connie Lippert: A Wedge Weaver’s Storied Cloth is by Carole Greene and is available HERE.