Friday, January 31, 2014

A return to weaving

I don't know whether you remember that last scarf - the one that took just one evening to make, right before Christmas?  Well, that scarf made me think I should get the loom out again and give weaving another try. 

This time, to make it easy on myself, I chose two skeins of self-striping yarn from Twisted Fiber Art in the exact same colourway, and hoped that I'd get a nice plaid effect with zero effort.


I made setting it up a priority for one day early in January, and then I ran out of time to play and set it aside.  This is Velvet, by the way, a club colourway that may yet be available in the regular shop, on the sport-weight Playful base, which is available all the time and makes for great socks.


It took another week before I could so much as get the shuttle filled with yarn and a start on the actual fabric.


(and then I ripped back three times, trying to get it started professionally enough to justify the effort.)


Eventually things got going pretty smoothly, and I could see that this was going to be another superfast scarf.

Still: it was a surprise to suddenly find myself at the end!


Especially given that I was going to be able to stop at exactly the opposite colour shift I'd started with, for a perfectly symmetrical stripe in the finished product.  Go me!


Alas, I still managed to get lumpy sides in spite of keeping everything tight and crisp on the winding end of things.  And I'm a bit worried that the weave is too loose generally to keep the yarn from getting everything pushed out of place and messy.

Still: done, in just 2.5 hours of weaving!  This, my friends is a process worth perfecting.


Meanwhile, I can't help thinking this particular scarf would make a pretty fantastic table runner.  So matchy.  Stay tuned for the glamour shots of the finished scarf - I think those deserve good outdoor light, don't you?

And that's me till Monday. Thanks for spending time with me this week and I hope you have a wonderful crafty weekend!

2 comments:

Leslie said...

Well, I think the scarf is lovely! I studied your pics because you mentioned the weave being too loose (one of the weaving experts I've read calls it "sleazy")...I don't see any problems with the close up of the weaving in progress or the finished product...a lot happens in the water! :) However, as in knitting, we go for different "setts" (guage) depending on the drape and function of the piece of fabric. If you're making a scarf, you want it to be woven a little looser or it won't wrap around and do its lovely drapey work. A table runner or towel definitely needs to be a tighter fabric. If you have different sized heddles for your loom try making the sett tighter and see how it works. With plain weave, I wrap the yarn around a ruler and count how many "wraps" are in an inch, being sure to pack it tightly but not overlapping the individual strands. For plain weave, divide that number by 2 and that's your sett.

Mary Keenan said...

Leslie, thanks so much for these explanations - I have loads of books on this subject I don't look at and it's just so much easier when you tell me ;^)