I finished this one the day before Christmas Eve, just in time to wash it, dry it over a radiator, and trim and tie the fringes. Woven on the Emilia using an 8 dent heddle and a simple 3/1 lace pickup pattern, I used slubby, handspun alpaca. The result was a pretty, incredibly soft and warm scarf. I only snapped these two pictures before waving goodbye.
I warped, wove, washed, and wore this scarf during a blizzard warning! It was two hours on the loom total, hand-washed and dried overnight on the radiator. When I wore it shoveling out from the 10”+ of snow the next morning, I was quite happy with it tied snugly around my neck. (And even happier when my neighbor drove up on his tractor and plowed our driveway!)
I used an 8 dent heddle and white acrylic for the warp, Rizotti (color: Marry) for the weft. The weft yarn is a blend of wool, mohair, nylon, and acrylic, and I found I hardly needed to beat it. It's very, very light and fluffy. I had a notion to make this a ruffle scarf by tugging a center warp thread and gathering the scarf in a little bit, but once I started, I didn't hold the opposite end and whoops! I pulled an entire thread out of the scarf. After scratching my head and laughing a little, I realized I kind of liked the look, so I pulled out two more warp threads on purpose.
The slubby texture led to some bumpy selvedges, and I just didn’t care. The one color change I messed up (you can see the color go from gray to white all of a sudden) didn’t bother me. It was a scarf woven during a blizzard! I mean, really!
Finished: the 7.5" x 16" table runner, woven with two heddles. Just big enough for a super small table or a mat underneath a lamp and telephone (which is where this one is living for now). I was thrilled to use two heddles and can't wait for the next project. This one involved embroidery thread and I used the Diamonds pattern from The Weaver's Idea Book. Very fun indeed. I don't even mind the bumpy edges (strange, I've read about this thing called a floating selvedge and yet never thought it would be something I need someday…).
Also finished: the shawl, poncho, throw-type weaving. It measures 17.5" x 60". I should have been about 6" longer, but I ran out of the Caron Simply Soft and was too impatient to buy some more. It's plenty long, however, and after knotting the fringes and trimming them to about 4", I called it done. It's now flung over the top of a chair. The pattern gives it a rustic look and I'm pleased with it.
The cat picture has a story. She suddenly flung herself onto the throw and skidded to the edge of the table. I snapped the picture just as she turned, shot across to the other side, jumped into her little basket, and skidded over the other edge where she landed on the ground. We think she was embarrassed.
I've been having a great time using two 10 dent heddles with my new double heddle kit I bought for my Emilia. I've never had to think so hard about threading. It was a brain teaser, but once done (by studying my Jane Patrick book, numerous websites and blogs, and also discussions on Ravelry), it all makes sense. Really! Basically, it's pulling four ends through each of the back heddle (also known as heddle II). Wind on your warp. Pull one strand from each grouping into each eye. So, when heddle II is warped, it has three ends in the slots, one end in an eye.
Then, you add in the front heddle (also known as heddle I) and it gets a little muddy, but in a nutshell, you pull two slot ends into a slot, the third slot end into an eye, and the final fourth end, which had been in the eye of heddle II, into the slot on the far side of the eye you just sleyed. Okay… make sense? Good! Continue on down, warping all of heddle I.
Now, you're ready! See? It's easy!
Well, not really. Would you believe it took me three hours? To warp 8" across? And just 36" long? Yes? Then you'd be wrong, because it actually took three and a half hours. Now, the next time, it'll be a cinch.
Once all that warp was carefully tied on, I was ready to weave… something… didn't know what… So, I pulled out Jane Patrick's book, picked a pattern from the Double Heddle chapter, and started weaving. I chose the Diamond pattern, mostly because it uses two heddles and no pickup sticks. (Yes, you can add in pickup sticks!) And there was much head scratching and pulling out of weft and so on as I followed the eight steps to complete one pattern section, until I finally realized it made sense and I was weaving the diamond pattern.
I'm using a variety of browns, reds, and off-whites from my embroidery thread collection. It's pretty, and even though my brain was taxed, it was worth it.