Open Doors ~ My Comfort Weave

I really enjoyed weaving this project; and it was truly a comfort weave, after all it’s just twill by another name. 

The 12 shaft Drall pattern that I used had three blocks of 3/1 twill.  The first block 1-2-3-4 (a) weaves the squares that sit in the vertical bands.  The second block 5-6-7-8 (b) weaves the bar that runs completely across the fabric. The third block 9-10-11-12 (c) weaves the background for the colour blocks. 

  

I didn’t want to weave the pattern repetitively; I wanted to develop the pattern as I went along to make it uniquely mine.  I did make a couple of rules for myself though.  I wanted to make sure that there was continuity to the scarf, just not repetitiveness.  The first rule was that block (a) would always be bracketed by one block of (b) and one of (c).  The second was that block (a) would never be followed by block (b).  As long as I followed these rules I could vary the size of block (a) and change the placement of the other two blocks to my hearts desire. 

This is the scarf just as it came off.  It’s a stiff as a board and at this stage it shows all the valleys and hills where the twill blocks are threaded, not really exciting at this stage at all!  The edges tended to curl under as I wove, not enough to cause a problem but enough to be noticeable.  If you look really closely you can just make out that there is a colour change in the red stripe next to the gold.  I had originally planned to put more colours in the warp, but as I pulled the warp it started to look too busy, so I stopped at three colours plus the base colour.

It’s quite amazing what just a short stint at the ironing board can achieve.  The valleys and hills are completely eradicated as are the curled edges….and the shine finally appeared!  The scarf isn’t really finished; I’ll haul out McSteamy for that final hard pressing.  The randomness of the pattern shows up nicely here, every time I look at the photos I like it more.

There are definitely two sides to this scarf; one side is much lighter than the other with more of the colour popping out.

I am calling this scarf ‘Open Doors’, I wanted to call it ‘open windows’ but though it would just confuse the heck out me ~ I can just see myself pressing the file expecting to open my operating system and being surprised that I couldn’t ~ so ‘Open Doors’ it is!

There is something so very pleasing about a graphic pattern isn’t there?

 I said that I was doing some comfort weaving so that I could think my 3D problem through…..yeah right!  I guess that isn’t going to happen any time soon, so here’s my next project.  Maybe this one will get my mojo back on!  I’m again doing my favourite type of weaving and I’ve pulled the warp for a scarf in 2/8 Tencel.  The colours are oyster for the warp and taupe for the weft.