Deflected Doubleweave Rosepath Scarf

I must admit that I found it hard to sit at the loom and weave this scarf, not because of the weave structure, but because of the colour.  I just don’t care for the colour of natural raw silk ~ a bit too bone coloured for me.

I was not really pleased with the selvedges on my first scarf, so I was ready to try anything other than re-threading.  With 40 epi that was a not going to happen.

I decided to try the simplest of my options and I cut out the brown thread block on the left hand side.This left the pattern not quite centred, but it was not really noticeable.

After cutting the warp out, I replaced the brown floating selvedge with a doubled up natural thread.  I used it doubled because it is just a tad finer and more prone to breakage.

The cut out warp was bundled up into a weighted film canister and hung off the back beam.

I had hoped to replace the natural coloured weft with another colour in this scarf and I chose a lovely soft dark peach soy silk yarn that is about 2/30.  As you can see it completely muddies the pattern.

I accepted that I had to use the natural coloured silk for weft and with the new selvedges it worked really well.  On the first scarf I started both of my shuttles on the same side, but on this scarf I started my brown weft on the right hand side and my natural weft on the left.  This matched the hanging selvedges.  When I threw the weft I started out going over the hanging selvedge and coming out under the the opposite hanging selvedge.  The edges were much better.

On the first scarf I wove, I used a very firm double beat, I beat once on the open shed and once on the closed shed to get as close to a balanced weave as possible.  This made the scarf motif quite round.

On this scarf I chose to throw the idea of a balanced weave out the window and to beat it only once on the open shed.  The idea was to make a very drapey and open fabric.  I also chose to treadle the pattern in a more elongated form by repeating one of the sequences an extra set.

Here it is off the loom in it’s natural form and boy is it ever loose!

It was at this point that I decided to just get rid of the natural colour.  I soaked the scarf in soda ash and I was amazed at what came out.....yuk.....that is extra dye and sericin.  This is last rinse out of five!

I then made a light dye bath with turquoise Procion MX, salt and urea and popped the wet scarf into it overnight.

Whew, much better.  I got some lovely soft colour and the web of the fabric has come together nicely.  This scarf is very malleable and soft.

 I’m even pleased with the edges!

I am rarely one to stray off the weaving topic, but the past few days have shaken the world view of so many of us in Canada.  We feel very lucky to live on Vancouver Island, where our local pulp and paper mill is doubling production of medical grade paper for all customers.