Four Shaft Ladder Ribbon Scarf

After I finished the Three Shaft Theo Moorman scarf I was left with scads ~ well a full ball and a bit ~of the ladder ribbon yarn that I had used as inlay.

This yarn is Bernat Matrix and the colour is called Natural Network.  I had used a similar yarn once before as warp with good results so I thought it would be a great use for it.

I pulled 94 ends and sett them at 12 ends per inch ~ 1 per dent in a 12 dent reed.  I wanted this scarf to wear with a black blazer and since I’m really, really short; I pulled only 80 inches for warp length.

I knew that the end result I wanted was a loosely flowing scarf that had the ladder colours popping through randomly and an undulating twill appearance; so I threaded the loom in a straightforward 2/2 twill, and treadled it the same straight twill. 

I made sure that I beat extremely lightly to allow the 2/8 tencel weft to slip and deflect over the colour spots in the ladder yarn.

While I was weaving the scarf I beat to maintain the 45 degreeish angle and aimed for 12 to 13 picks per inch.  To achieve this I beat on the closed shed after changing pattern shafts.  I basically laid each thread softly in place.

When I took the scarf off the loom it looked like the weft had pretty well covered the warp, but after washing I got MAGIC!  It really moved around and gave the ladders lots of play room.

The Tencel weft slipped around and started to look more like the undulating twill I had hoped for.  The ribbon popped out here and there and it looks great.

The best part of it all is that I didn’t have to twist the fringes…..ladder yarn doesn’t fray.
A great stash buster for me too!

The garden shot for today is Cotinus Coggygria 'Golden Sprite' (Golden Smoke tree), amazingly the new leaves come out almost burgundy in colour.  I coppiced this shrub in late winter to encourage lots of leaves and few flowers.