Thursday, October 25, 2012

Learning to weave: sparkle edition

Learning to weave is a lot easier than I thought it would be, but there is a learning curve about which yarn to use and how much of it the loom will want.  For example, it turns out that just because I was able to make my first very long scarf all out of one skein of yarn doesn't mean I'll always be able to do that.

(hello: yardage matters, and laceweight has a lot more than fingering.)

So here is the red scarf story.

I had this very sparkly yarn from a long-ago Biscotte club - the kind where merino gets paired with a little silver filament.  It was self-striping and beautiful and I couldn't commit to knitting with it so it kept on sitting in my yarn bin waiting for the right thing and

well, sometimes you just gotta look at weaving as the answer, so I did.


I just forgot that I might use up all the yarn on the warping part and have nothing left for the rest, which is what happened.

GAH

Now, this was at about 10:30 on a Saturday night because I know how to live.  Unfortunately that is one time of the day when one cannot run to a yarn store to pick up more yarn in the perfect shade to solve such a problem.

And it's not in my contract of 'a scarf a week till Christmas' to stop any Saturday's setting up of loom at such a point.  That left me with my stash of yarn and the hope that something in there would work.


le sigh

It was perfect, but it was also a yarn I'd been on-purpose hoarding, a solid red skein of Felix, also from Biscotte, in a shade I love soooo much.  And Felix is a base yarn that is soooo soft.  I did not want this to be the answer but


it really was.  Now I don't have enough to do red socks.  But I have quite a lot to pair with a contrast colour, and I have a great scarf*, so I guess it's good news.


Sorry I can't show you the end result: it's the lack of sun for photography thing again (I've been trying for days, trust me, it's not happening.)  But when I do get to show you, you'll understand Problem Number Two*.

Meanwhile:  have a great day!


* the problem being: how do you give away such an awesome scarf??

2 comments:

Jaderenee said...

Itreally is awesome! Did you decide to keep it? What brand of loom are you usig. I wat to start weaving again. It is so relaxing and satisfying.
p.s. I LOVE your patterns. Thanks for all thefree ones!

Mary Keenan said...

Jaderenee, I don't have to decide for a month or two so I'm going to put off making up my mind (unless I accidentally reach for it on discovering it is a perfect match for something I'm wearing one day, heh.) The loom is an Ashford Knitter's Loom, the smaller of the two sizes. Loving it. Free patterns: glad you like 'em, got another one coming up next week!