Ask Madelyn: Blending Colors in a Warp

Madelyn, I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to blend colors in a warp. I'm not very knowledgeable about painting warp, so I would be using commercially dyed yarn. For example, I want to go from yellow to purple across the warp to imitate the effect of a sunset. Are there any patterns or tricks to getting a smooth transition? –Grace Marks

Hi Grace!

A really common way of blending colors is to use the Fibonacci series. That series is made by using the number 1, adding 1, and then adding the sum to the preceding number to get the next one: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,  etc. So you’d introduce first 1 thread of the new color, 8 of the old, 1 of the new color, 5 of the old, 2 of the new color 3 of the old, 3 of the new color 2 of the old, 5 of the new color, 1 of the old, 8 of the new color, 1 of the old. . .  sort of like that. You can use the same idea with other numbers.

You can practice proportions by wrapping the colors on a card, similarly to the wraps Kate Lange-McKibben did for her runners in the March/April 2010 issue of Handwoven.

Madelyn