Crackle Weave - 8 Shaft Silk Scarf

After thinking that I’d woven all the hand painted silk warps ~ I found yet another one!  This scarf warp was painted 2/3 fuchsia and 1/3 moss green.  Amazingly, they look fantastic together!  I’ve threaded it with a very big crackle pattern on 8 shafts; one that Ngaire has woven before.  I love the interesting shape of the threading on the loom.

The weft choice was pretty easy on this one ~ dark marine blue kept the fuchsia nice and rosy and kept the moss from being too yellow.  It wasn’t too far into the pattern that the iridescence really started to show up and I was thrilled.

As soon as the scarf was off the loom a significant selvedge problem became apparent; even though I’d used floating selvedge ~ these were a horror!  Where the pattern carried weft floats near the selvedges, there is a very discernible bump outward.

I’ve also inadvertently sett the scarf too loose.  My notes said 28 epi; but in my pre-Christmas daze I sett this scarf at 24 epi and that created the selvedge problem!

Other than my selvedge problem, I love the pattern on this scarf.  The pattern repeat is 216 picks long, so it is wonderfully interesting to weave and the scale of the pattern stops it from being too precious or fussy.  I think it has a wonderful contemporary look.

Now that the scarf is done I have three fix options for the selvedges.  The first is to do a fancy blanket stitch edge, similar to a hand rolled scarf edge.  The second is to a crochet line edge (not anything fancy).  Third is currently my favourite and that is to make a long twisted cord and attach that to the selvedge; I've done this before sucessfully.  Hmmmm, I guess I’ve got some thinkin’ to do!

We wish you a Merry Christmas season and send our hopes for a Happy and Healthy New Year. 

This garden shot is of a planter of Trailing Rosemary that is outside on the patio ~ can you see the flowers in bloom on December 21!  Love it!