Finally for this phase of the pandemic, scarves are really the true story. In March, I wove a silk merino scarf in colors that weren't really my thing. This yarn was 50-50 merino and silk blend. I used it in the warp and weft, weaving an extended point twill design.
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Coral-Green Merino Silk
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| Coral-Green Merino Silk - detail |
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When we went into self-isolation, I thought it was finally time to start using the good yarn. I had been promising myself for about five or six years to do that. I was headed to the silk yarn I have but on the way got a bit diverted by tencel yarns. I really thought it might be a safer choice on the way to using silk.
Over the years, I had bought several (read many) skeins of Just Our Yarns 10/2 tencel yarns. They had fabulous colors and encouraged a mix and match approach to weaving with them. Sadly, the company is no longer in business, but there were those skeins in the yarn bin.
I approached the first scarf in tencel with a bit of trepidation. I hadn't woven with it before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. After a little research and discussion with other weavers, I sett the warp at 36 epi. I chose a fuchsia yarn for the warp and blue for the weft. These yarns are all variegated, so there is lots of variation in the yarn colors. The warp was threaded in a fancy point twill and the tie-up was a 2-2-1-1-1-1 twill (as all of these scarves use).
I found that the scarf almost wove itself - so effortlessly. I was amazed.
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| Fuchsia Blue |
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Fuchsia Blue - detail
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I was so happy with the results of the previous scarf and how easily it wove, I decided to weave another one. The second scarf used a green variegated warp and a rust var. weft. It was threaded as an extended point twill.
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| Green-Orange |
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Green-Orange - detail
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Things were moving so smoothly, I kept weaving scarves. The next one was a different green variegated warp with a fuchsia variegated weft.
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Green Fuchsia
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| Green Fuchsia - detail |
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I kept going - it was May and I located the blue 10/2 tencel yarn I had. This scarf had both a blue warp and weft of slightly different colorways. It was threaded as a point twill.
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Blues
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Blues - detail
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It was getting to be summer and a friend asked me if I ever wove scarves without fringe. No, I hadn't because it was harder to get a good edge. but this did get me thinking about doubleweave hems - a good way to have a nice clean edge without the extra bulk of a folded over hem. For me details about that adventure, check out a previous blog post: https://foothillweaving.blogspot.com/2020/09/scarves-with-doubleweave-hems.html .
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I wove two scarves with doubleweave hems. This second attempt had twill hem as well as a twill design for the scarf itself. For this scarf, I used the leftover yarn from the previous scarves as the warp. I alternated two colors until I ran out of one or the other and added a new color when that left off. Since there were similar colors in all of the yarns, they all went together. The threading was a straight draw on eight shafts and the tie-up was a 2-2-1-1-1-1 twill. Although it only needed eight shafts, in order to create the twill doubleweave hem, I needed 16 treadles, so I wove this on my dobby loom.
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Blue-Fuchsia w/ Doubleweave hem
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| Blue-Fuchsia - detail |
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Having gotten really comfortable with 10/2 tencel, I decided it was time to weave a scarf with silk. I chose a pink variegated 20/2 silk for the warp and purple 20/2 from Redfish Dye Works for the weft. I used an advancing point twill on eight shafts for the threading and a different one for the treadling. After consulting sources and weaving friends, I sett the warp at 30 epi.
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| Pink Silk Drawdown |
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Pink Silk - Detail
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| Pink Silk |
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The next scarf was in tencel. I chose an orange-green variegated for the warp and green-blue for the weft. The threading and treadling was the same as the silk scarf above.
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Green-Orange
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Green-Orange - detail
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The last scarf came off the loom this past week. It was woven with two color ways of blue 10/2 tencel. The threading was an extended point twill and the treadling an advancing point twill.
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Blue-Maroon
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Blue-Maroon - detail
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I've enjoyed delving into the use of tencel and a little exploration with silk. I am sure there will be more scarves like these in the future. I had been weaving scarves exclusively with wool and wool blends. Here are a few examples of wool scarves. The orange is a blend of sock yarns. It was threaded as an extended point twill with the 2-2-1-1-1-1 tie-up. In addition to teh twisted fringe, I added some beads.
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Fire 1
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Fire 1 - detail
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These two scarves were woven using yarn that was dyed by Vice Yarn while it was in a knitting blank. The yarn is then unknitted and wound in a cake skein. The yarn is crimped from the process which gives the finished scarf an interesting texture. These two scarves were threaded as undulating twills.
*****************************************************************************************I'm sure we will be in self-isolation for many more months, so I'm looking forward to more exploration and more scarves.
