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!
I used a variety of yarns and colors with a goal of creating a warp-faced scarf this time around. I used the 10 dent heddle on my Glimakra Emilia, warped about 5" wide with Paton's Country (green, red), Blue Heron Rayon (mossy), and a home-dyed, homespun wool (maroon) from a local shop. The weft was Sinofina mercerized cotton (olive).
I used the heddle to lift and lower the threads, but then used the inkle belt shuttle to do the beating. The scarf drew in over an inch. Off the loom, the scarf is 3.75" x 40" with 4" of fringe on either side. If I attempt another warp-faced scarf in order to get that striped look, I'll remember that the warp should be longer than I think, otherwise I'll end up with another short scarf. It's cute, though.
Next project: anything but a scarf!
What's coming in the mail??? A very early Christmas present… for me!
Here it is! A bright, blaze orange scarf meant for keeping a person–in this case my dad–a little bit warmer and a tiny bit safer during the upcoming deer hunting season. I have to admit a few things: 1) It was hard to find a local source of blaze orange yarn. This was the closest I could find (I Love This Yarn in orange); 2) It hurt my eyes just a tiny bit to weave blaze orange.
Luckily, I am very fond of the color orange, so it was a fun, fast project. I've learned that acrylic can be difficult at times, though, and joining yarn is a pain because the ends don't stay put the way they do with wool.
Next year: a better blaze orange hunting scarf with a fancy pattern and a nicer yarn.