Introducing Summer 2025: Shifting Colors

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see a van Gogh exhibit—twice!—when it was in Denver. The show featured dozens of drawings and paintings from throughout his career. Both times I went, I made a point to view each work of art first from afar (as intended) and then carefully moved as close as I could get to each piece without risking the ire of the museum’s security guards.

I never got tired of seeing how the images shifted from flowers, fields, or van Gogh himself into thickly applied smears and swirls as I moved toward the paintings. Up close, the paint appeared haphazard, but as I moved away, the random brushstrokes would blend and a masterpiece appeared. Such is the magic of color.

Annabelle Johnstone used a color gradient warping technique to get the slow color shifts in her Peacock Scarf and Wrap.

When coming up with the Shifting Colors theme for this issue of Easy Weaving with Little Looms, I thought back to those paintings and wondered about the different ways weavers wield color. Yarn doesn’t blend quite as nicely as paint, but we can create shading effects with gradients. Asymmetrical color blocks or stripes that build on patterns such as the Fibonacci sequence can make a piece interesting—without feeling discordant. And then, of course, all the different types of variegated yarns open up yet another world of design potential.

Allison Irwin's Spectrum Spectacles Cord is woven using a simple tubular inkle-weaving technique.

I’m so happy to say that the designs in this issue lived up to my hopes and expectations. To give you just a taste, we have a pin-loom scarf with a spectacular ombré effect thanks to a warp-pooling technique, a spiraling rainbow inkle cord, a Fibonacci-inspired runner with a spectacularly vivid supplementary warp, and a pin-loom–woven chameleon seemingly caught mid-color change.

The articles in this issue are just as good as the projects. You’ll learn how to design bands with color gradients, get the details on pin-loom gamps, and read all about Tom Knisely’s experience weaving rag rugs using a giant rigid heddle. In fact, I had so many good articles for this issue that I couldn’t fit them all in. Keep an eye out on this website for a two-article series about natural dyeing from dyer, weaver, and author Wendy Arnott. I do hope you enjoy this issue all about color and the wonderful ways we can use it as we weave.

Happy weaving! Christina