Monday, January 2, 2017

A Warm Shawl for a Wintery Day

I'm working on reducing the bulk of my stash, so I looked in my bin of Mountain Colors yarns and found three skeins of Twizzle in the color Northern Lights.  In addition to reducing my stash, I'm trying to work with my nicest yarns.  I really love working with Mountain Colors yarns.  

Northern Lights Twizzle Warp

I also found a skein of Alpaca Blend in the Gold Rush.  It had some of the same colors as the Twizzle.  It also had a smoother texture which I thought would help it blend in rather than jump out versus the warp yarn.

Alpaca Blend - Gold Rush weft

Since the warp had lots of color variations, I thought that a simpler design would be better than something with a lot of pattern.  I thread the warp to a straight draw and tied up to a 2-2-1-1-1-1 twill.  I decided that this would be balanced and be a little more interesting than just plain weave or a 2-2 twill.  It will also give the shawl more drape that if I wove it in plain weave.



I was pleasantly surprised that the warp did a little self-striping with the yellow standing out.  It looked like I had planned it but it was all how the warp colors landed.

Shawl on the loom
The shawl turned out looking great.  It has a nice drape and feels substantial but not heavy.  I washed it by hand and laid it out to dry on our last clear day.  I twisted the fringes to finish the look.  

Finished Shawl 




Finished Shawl
 A nice way to use up some yarn.