shades of white

Back in September I did a little bit of dying. The indigo dying worked quite well. The lily of the valley dying, not quite so much. There is very little difference between the natural wool and the dyed wool. I wanted to see if the difference would be more noticeable if the threads were woven into fabric. Here is my finished sample:

The warp starts with 4 doubled strands of natural Shetland wool, then Finn dyed with lily of the valley leaves. There are 4 natural Finn threads on each side of the indigo threads. The remainder is dyed Finn and natural Shetland. Beginning at the bottom of the photo, the weft is natural Finn, up to the pointer. It then switches to dyed Finn for the center of the weaving, and back to natural at the upper end.

I had hoped that where the threads were natural white in both directions the fabric would be brighter than where it was mixed dyed and natural, and where it is all dyed, that it would look creamier. In fact, that is the case. It is difficult to see, however, because the white stripe is only 4 threads wide. I should have used at least 8 threads for each stripe. The difference between mixed and all dyed is very subtle and difficult to notice except in bright sunlight.

I still have some dyed thread left. I think I will make another sample with wide white and cream checks. Maybe then there will be a noticeable difference.