Eight Shaft Plaited Twill Scarf

I rarely ~ make that never ~ set out to weave something for myself.  Like most weavers I get to keep the mistakes, so needless to say I have plenty of scarves!

When I saw this warp though, I knew it was for me.  The warp is raw silk that I dyed in gold and green and the notes I have for it show that it is a warp long enough for two scarves.   I wanted to weave a wider or ‘blanket’ scarf for my upcoming trip to Spain and this was the perfect time to do it.

I decided to fold the warp in half and mount it on the loom.  One end of the warp was as usual with the cross intact, and the other end had my warp counting twining in groups of 10.

I had to figure out a way of picking up a cross for the lease sticks that was quick and effective and I decided to use a netting needle to weave through the counting stitches.

It looks pretty rough, but it worked very well.

Now it was time to audition the weft.  My goal with this scarf was to wear it with a denim jacket, and ideally I would weave it with bombyx silk weft, but I just didn’t have a colour that would work.

So with that in mind I went for the next best thing and tried a bunch of 2/8 Tencel colours starting with Vert Fonce (Brassard), Grey Blue (Webs), Coquille (Brassard), Mineral Green (Webs),  and Straw (Webs).  None of them really floated my boat, but the Grey Blue seemed to show the plaited twill pattern the best and would go with denim, so I went with that.

The 8 shaft, 12 treadle plaited twill pattern is subtle on the green warp and shows nicely on the gold.  I’m loving it!

Although I expected to have plenty of warp, since this was a double scarf warp, I did not.  Upon reflection I expect the raw silk took up hugely when I was washing out the dye.  I ended up weaving right to the very end and as close to the heddles as I dared to go.

Off the loom and relaxed, it came in at 68 inches long by 16 inches wide, luckily I'm a diminutive gal, OK... make that short.... and so this is plenty long enough.

Here it is, still not steam pressed or fringe twisted, but looking wonderful on my jacket and all ready to wow them in September.

Little by little Ngaire and I are making all the technical challenges featured on the Great British Bake Off and this is our very tasty attempt at a Povitica.  Pretty, pretty loaf and yummy too!

The beauty shot from our garden is Grevillea victorae (Victoria Grevillea) which is an Australian protea.  It is loaded with these confloresenses right now and they should start opening at the end of September just when the hummingbirds need the nectar.