Spin and Weave a Sunset

Have you ever looked at something beautiful and thought, “I could do that”? The hubris of the fiber artist strikes again as I scroll through the beautiful sunset pictures on social media, wondering how hard it would be to capture the incredible display of color. As a handspinner and beginner rigid-heddle weaver, I set out to see if I could apply the principles I’ve seen used in planned pooling for knit and crochet to build a clasped-weft weaving, mimicking all the colors of the wind.

In knitting and crochet, planned pooling is where a skein of yarn is space-dyed in a specific pattern so that when you work a particular number of stitches, the colors “pool” together and create a pattern—magical! Using this method, my plan was to start with a beautiful sunset photo, design a weaving draft, and spin a yarn for the weft that would magically change colors as I wove to pool into my desired sunset. As I set out to do some weaving math, I quickly dialed back my ambition and decided the mountain part of this sunset scene needed to be its own yarn; this meant I could spin the sunset of my dreams. Clasped weft offered the perfect weaving solution, allowing me to create an undulating transition between mountain and sky as I wove.