It’s May 7th and I have 6 scarves woven, wet finished, and complete! First up, I started with some hand painted 20/2 silk. I dyed this yarn in late April, using a photo I found online from Blue Brick Dyeworks, as inspiration. They called it Prairie Storm, which works for me.
Here’s the yarn I ended up with from that inspiration image.
I chose a weave structure I’ve used many times and really like, and wove the first scarf with a 20/2 gold weft. Looks like that storm at dawn.
Then I used 2 strands of a textured green & white silk singles I’ve had for a long time. I also changed the treadling, turning the pattern into leaves. So different! The colors are more spring-like, and the texture adds a strong element.
Here’s a close up so you can see both weave structure and texture.
For the last scarf I wanted a strong color, so used 2 strands of 60/2 chocolate silk. Now that prairie storm is really threatening.
I went back to the treadling of the gold scarf, which you can’t really see there, but you can in this close up.
Then, sticking with my must-use-stash mantra, I pulled out a rayon seed yarn, something I’ve never used before. Sett at only 15 ends per inch, I had to remove my go-to 12-dent reed and go up to the attic to get my 6-dent to accommodate this ‘lumpy’ yarn. wasn’t at all sure how I’d like it. Turns out I love it! I used a different supplemental weft for each of the 3 scarves.
First is a wide ribbon with a gold metallic center. This one, like the other 2, has a regular old 8/2 rayon weft.
You can’t really appreciate that ribbon or the texture at that distance, so here’s a close up.
That wide ribbon didn’t look at all good on the loom, and I wasn’t at all sure how the whole thing would wet finish, so I cut it off and wet finished scarf number 1 before proceeding. Decided I didn’t want to use such a wide supplement, so re-threaded the reed for the next 2 scarves.
This one is uses a soy silk flat ribbon-like yarn in purples and pinks.
And the last one has a hand painted rayon yarn in greens and blues.
The only downside to these scarves is that there was no way I could twist that fringe, nor did I think they would make a nice hem So I tried a few different simple knotting techniques, but neither is as neat a look as I prefer.
Today I got the next scarf warp on the loom. This one is dominated by this interested rayon boucle yarn that has metallic interest Looking forward to seeing this one weave.
May 7th, 2019 |
