Hi Dorothy,

My apologies for disappearing for a while. I have freed up my Hagen loom my removing the beginnings of the lettering tapestry. I also have a new loom, the one built to Archie Brennan's specifications by his son Jesse (you can see it at http://www.brennan-maffei.com/Loom.htm ). And, I found I have a basic frame loom already warped to about 6 inches wide. Any reason I couldn't use that for sampling?

I have put together some weft bundles to sample and will add pictures to this entry tomorrow morning. In addition to blending different values of the same hue, I am trying weft bundles of slightly different grays -- in Paternayan color names, for example, I am mixing the taupe I had started with to some steel grey. (Those color samples are side by side here: http://www.florilegium.com/images/Paternayan%20Yarn/Ptryn%20100-213a.jpg )

I got hung up though on the background for the sample. I have very little of the tweedy yarn I started using for the background, and am not sure that I would have enough for the tapestry itself if I also used it for sampling. It was a small amount of yarn left on a cone at the school, and I have been unplying it and using a single strand. I began thinking it would be more interesting to create my own background color through weft blending and other color techniques (like hatching in other blends). So I am identifying some colors to use with that. It would make sense to sample the color blends of the gray with color blends of the background I want. Does all that sound right? If so, I am going to see if I can get the colors I want locally and, if not, mail order them.

A yarn with hand dyed variations would work very well for this piece as I imagine it, but I need to focus. The color study distracted me from the weaving, to be honest and I think I will stick to the sampling for the moment.

You said no more than 6 inches wide for the sample. I will be sampling a circle, of course, to implement what you described in your post.

I will post pictures of the gray weft bundles, and, when I get them, some of the background paper/parchment type colors.