"Unraveled V" In Process

I was so excited to get back to working on this one.  Those sparkling squares of silk on that upholstery fabric background have been a siren while number IV was being finished for the upcoming SMQ Guild quilt show.  Lengths of the most intensely colored of the four yarns were pinned in place to get a feel for how they'll drape.

I chose this yarn because it had a tighter twist of the four plies.  Most of the wool, or wool-like, yarns have a looser twist that makes them too fluffy and fly-away for the effect I'm after.  My favorite is the heavy and thick drape of the silk sari yarns.  I'm playing and exploring options at this stage.

After couching those pinned yarns in place, I could see that the coverage of these thin yarns weren't what I had in mind.  So back on the design board where another line of yarn was pinned across the center of the silk squares.  I'm loathe to pick out stitching unless I absolutely have to.  Also, I very much liked the fact that those silk fabric samples just happened to echo the woven squares in the background fabric.  That additional row of yarn helped.  However, it still wasn't the coverage I had pictured in my mind.

Soooo... I "unstitched" the bottom half of those that already had the yarn couched around them and cut the squares in half.  I would never have guessed that I'd like these shapes and their arrangement better than my original plan.

Now there are enough edges for the couched yarns to hang from for the coverage I have in mind.

Unraveled V   18" x 40"

The shading of the yarns didn't work the way I intended.  Each of the four yarns have different lengths for their colorways.  I had expected them to be the same, or at least close.  In spite of that, I'm pleased with the result.  There is a gradation from strong to weak intensity of the yarn colors as the eye moves down the piece, which was my intention when I selected these yarns. 

Since the above photo was taken all the loops have been cut.  I'm busy knotting the ends to give the yarn tails a bit of weight.  I also have an idea about adding something more.  Come back in a day, or two, to see this one finished.