Sunday, July 27, 2014

Handspun Scarf

I am not a spinner and haven't woven with handspun yarn, but the Fair is coming up and we're all trying to increase the number of entries in the Wool Division.  There was a plea from our guild president for members to enter their handspun skeins and items made from handspun.  I piped up and said I didn't have any handspun yarn.  She fixed me up.

Mardi spun the merino yarn on the right.  It's a nice mauve/purple color (the picture is a little red on my monitor).  It was a nice weight and strong enough to use a warp.  I debated what to use as weft and decided on a navy alpaca yarn from my stash.  An original suggestion was black, which might have looked OK but the navy wasn't quite as severe and brought out the purple in the handspun.  


I picked a extended point twill on 8-shafts and a 2-2-1-1-1-1 treadling for the scarf.  The warp was sett at 6 epi.  (Although as with the Alpaca shawl I wove for the Fair, this was sett too loosely.)  I washed the scarf in my front load washer in cool water on a gentle cycle.  I did put it in the dryer on low for a little while. 
 
 



I like the way the colors work together and the mauve appears through the navy.  The hand is very nice and I like how the alpaca softens the piece a bit.  I twisted the fringe with my hair twister.
 
 

 
It was a great experience to work with Mardi's handspun yarn.  It was well spun and a lovely color.  I'm hoping the Fair judges will like the scarf too. 
 

 

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