Thursday, October 29, 2009

Beading the 'Echoes of Sunrise' Scarf

You may remember from my last post about the Echo Weave scarf that I had not completed it yet; I still needed to bead it. The first thing that I do for beading is to pull scads of beads from the bead drawer; anything that could possibly work gets pulled out. I then narrow down the choices to four or five different beads. I then use fine quilting pins to try different beading ideas out. They are great because they are very long and the perfect diameter for seed beads. Once I make the final decision on the beading sequence and pattern; I then make up the bead designs on pins so I can check if I have enough beads and to see what the final product is going to look like. For the Echo scarf Mum came up with the great idea of making a V-shaped fringe of beads because it echoes the pattern of the weaving. The blue colour from the weft needed to be pulled down into the fringe and I think that the beading really enhanced the scarf by echoing the blue colour and the angle of the weave.
Today was the first day that the snow has come into the valley, as wet flurries that melt as soon as they hit the ground on the lowlands but the hills are covered. The snow is slowly (well, quickly) creeping its way down the mountains.
Here is my latest project; it is an experiment in differential shrinkage with Merino wool and Tencel. It is really beautiful on the loom, but I can’t weave it because I have run out of the sea coral Tencel! We had to order more from Yarns Plus in Ontario and I am now waiting for the mailman to bring me my present!

4 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

Beads: Yay!
Snow: Boo!!
Next project: Cool!!

That's a great idea for the beading - the V. It looks great with the scarf.

I'm still in denial of winter. It would be harder if I could see it out my window though!

I hope the mailman hurries so you can keep going on that next project. It looks great so far!

Sue

Delighted Hands said...

What a pretty finish the beading gives! The sheen on the new warp is beautiful-hope your pkg arrives soon!

Deanna said...

What a marvelous idea to "echo the echo" in the beads. Very clever, and very very lovely!

Benita said...

The pictures of the snow working its way down the hills are absolutely beautiful. Make me want to build a fireplace and toast my toes in front of it with hot, spiced apple cider. Mmmmm.....