Friday, October 22, 2010

Weaving with Novelty Yarn Part Two

Every time I weave, I learn something new. It may be something about a weave structure or about a fibre; this time I learned that if your shuttle is three times larger than your project it is too large! I wasn’t letting the shuttle glide across the reed race; no it was more like I was passing a large and heavy block of wood hand to hand. I got a great arm work out though!
The finished scarf looks amazing! The interplay between the weft, a 2/16 mercerized cotton in ‘aubergine’ and the ladder ribbon is just remarkable. It takes a really simple weave structure and makes it into something special.
The bonus surprise from this scarf is the ikat look. This came out due to the fact that the ribbon yarn is dyed in a staggered manner. When I put the warp on the loom naturally some of these staggers line up and – instant ikat!
I twisted the fringe and it looks incredible. I was careful to not over twist because I wanted the blocks of colour from the ribbon to show through. The fringe looks like it has been studded with jewels.
The fringe twisting also went twice as fast because Mum just purchased a Leclerc quadruple fringe twister. It is totally the way to go, it is so versatile, two doubles, one triple or one quadruple – fantastic!
I love this scarf; I wish that it was mine! But I already have a similar one and I am sure that this scarf is going to find itself a nice new home at the Ponderosa Guild’s Christmas Sale which takes place at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna November 13 and 14th.

7 comments:

schotanus said...

How wonderfull it has become.I like it verry much. When I saw the first scarf made in petrol I instantly thought this is the solution to my problem
I have the same yarn in black and white and was planning to knit a scarf. After some attempt I stopped knitting. I didn't like the results. But weaving is. What kind of weaving structure did you use. A twill? or just plain waive?

Greetings Jolanda Schotanus

Annie said...

Lovely scarf! I must try to weave with that ladder yarn one day. I knit a scarf with it before, which also makes a nice scarf, but until now I haven't woven with it. How did it behave as warp?

India said...

I just love that scarf. But the shuttle was a little to big. Isn´t that a shuttle for industilooms?

Ngaire said...

Hi,
The weave struture is a 2/2 twill. The ladder ribbon was very well behaved as warp, it had no elastic properties so it was really easy to use. The shuttle is an AVL 15 inch end feed shuttle and it is for home use, it just looks very large next to the 5 inch scarf. I used this shuttle for other projects and had no problems, but I think this scarf is a little thinner then usual and I could really tell that I was using the wrong size shuttle!

Marion B. said...

The scarf is super!

Susan said...

The colours are amazing together and the fringe is delicate looking!
Some one will snap that up at the sale!
Susan

bspinner said...

This is so cool!!!! I love it!!