Of competitions, deadlines, and dye shenanigans

Regulations on baby wraps officially went into effect on Jan 30, and there was a huge rush within the community for everyone to squeeze in some last fancy fiber combinations.  (Short version is every fiber combination must be retested, and a full size sample has to be submitted and returns cut/unsellable.  All the fancy fibers that aren't going off to the labs had to be done prior to Jan 30.)

Everyone in the community had hoped Loom to Wrap would host a final Great Competition of Weavers before regulations, but as time ticked closer and there was no sign of one, it looked unlikely.  I planned to do my last handspun piece, copper patina, and then work on pieces we would test for the labs.

Someone suggested an unofficial competition based on geeky fandom characters, and after some flip flopping amongst strong female characters, I decided on Briene of Tarth from Game of Thrones.  A friend said she was going to do Tormund, and there was giggling and planning and things were coming together.  Testers got nudged back.

Then suddenly, Loom to Wrap announced a "quick" competition, to finish up 2 weeks before regulations.  Everyone had very short notice and most of us were plotting lab testers, if not also the character showcase.  Panic.

Loom to Wrap's visibility is huge - and wraps seen there give a huge marketing advantage to anyone who participates.  The hype is immeasurable for these competitions, not even for the winner but just because everyone outdoes themselves and uses it as a chance to go outside their personal box.

It wasn't a matter of IF I would participate, it was how.  My friend delayed Tormund, and I didn't feel right doing Briene without her.  So I thought, planned, considered bumping up my Dark Crystal wrap, but it didn't feel right to do a single character.  Then I realized.

My kids.  Their movie.  2 sons of Adam, 2 daughters of Eve.  I needed to travel to Narnia for the character showcase.  But... how to make it fit in my time constraints?

I split the warp for Copper patina.  I dyed two thirds of it as I'd planned, in coppers, greens, blues, and browns.  The other third I dyed totally differently.  I speckle dyed forest greens to make it look like pine trees peeking through snow.  I streaked burgandy and gold for Lucy and Tumnus.  Tiny pops of blue for ice. 

I ended up playing with a 6 shaft crackle, and switched out the treadling only.  They looked so different I didn't think anyone would be able to peg me based on design similarity. 

  The blue highlighted was the Narnian "icicle" pattern,  while copper patina was done in the below version.  Both used 6 shafts and had a plainweave selvedge.

As woven, you can see the transition between the dyework on copper patina (towards the camera) and Spare Oom in the back.

I was skeptical but would absolutely have not finished in time had this not worked, and the piece was exactly as I'd envisioned!