A New Year a New Scarf!

Whew…..the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. Not only did we celebrate Christmas and New Year, but we had both Michaels and Ngaires birthdays in there too! I feel so sorry for December babies….it’s really hard to make their special days compete with Christmas! Needless to say I’m feeling just a bit ragged around the edges and a bit overfed right now! Ahhh, the fleeting call of the January diet beckons!

I have been weaving quite a bit and have the scarf that I’ve named Cedar Bark off the loom, finished and listed on Etsy ~ I’m really pleased with it!

The pattern is really complex looking and because you only use four shafts it’s very easy to raise all the harnesses on the loom, so it’s a true joy to weave. I’m tucking this one away for future use.

I liked it so much that I put on exactly the same scarf in blue silk, thankfully they look very different so I could list both on Etsy.

I really wanted to showcase the silk so finding the right weft was paramount. I tried silver, lavender, magenta, purple and navy wefts before I gave in and went tone on tone.
The Azure blue is the perfect choice I think and now I’m sorry I chose black for the Cedar silk scarf when I could have been much braver and chosen orange!
The scarf which I’ve named Blue Waterfall has an amazing embossed look and the weft really showcases the variations in the warp.

I had dyed both hanks of yarn a few years ago at the same time and used the Cedar as warp for a ‘freeform’ scarf and the Blue as warp for a Theo Mooreman scarf. Have a look at them.

Making warps has been a bit of a pain since we moved houses and I’ve been leaning my warping board against the loom, or the couch, or anywhere out of the way while I pull the warp, needless to say not an ideal situation. My yarn spools have been known to completely abandon the room and roll right out of the door! So, my lovely husband seeing my plight built me this mini spool rack. It fits neatly under my Leclerc Holds All and can carry 6 spools of yarn. The really nifty part is that he used a guide for a fly fishing rod as the yarn guide; with the ceramic coating it’s really smooth and won’t catch on the fine yarn! I can definitely see a few more striped warps in my future!