Colors of the Grand Tetons Placemats

The wedding present for Anne's nephew is a set of placemats and a table runner in bleached Belgian Linen with stripes that reflect the colors of the Grand Tetons - a favourite of the soon to be married couple.

The woven structure is one I have done before for placemats and looks particularly good when wet finished and ironed. 

I decided to try a slightly different approach to the 'stripe'.  The last couple of placemats required painting the warp colors in small batches that slightly randomly formed patterns when woven. This time I wanted to control the color transitions more closely to set out the color scheme for each stripe.  To do that I caclulated the weft width (with draw in) and the depth of the stripe and divided that into the zones of color which were (based on a photograph) required.  Basically:
start with Prairie, then prairie and trees, mountain and trees, mountain, mountain and snow, mountain and snow and sky, sky then deep blue sky.

I've used Yarn Barn of Kansas dyes (tiny amounts) along with a thickener (sodium alginate) and soda ash to fix - all mixed up and painted on to the sections.

Painted weft yarn

The yarn is currently wrapped in cling wrap for 24 hours, then will be rinsed and washed and dried before it will be wound on to a couple of bobbins ready to weave.  Along with a couple of shots of silver thread (to signify the engagment rings) the stripes should look good although you never know until it is woven!!