Weave-a-long lessons in stash busting.
June 6th to July 17th

Click image for enlargement.
In June I signed up for an on-line class led by expert weavers Tien Chiu from California and Janet Dawson from Cape Breton. The lesson was on how to chose mixed yarns from your stash to weave a scarf. About 3000 people from all over the world signed up!!

First I played with colours.

(09:06:2020)

There were weekly on-line lessons by Tien and Janet. Some people starting winding warps right away.

I rejected some of the first yarns and tried again with this batch.

(10:06:2020)
We also looked at the pictures in gray scale to see what would stand out and what would disappear when they were mixed.

(10:06:2020)
Here is what I ended up with - the light peach cone on the left will be the weft. The three skeins above have been wound into balls, and the blue cone replaced the two small balls above. Just a few ends of the fluffy yarn were added.

This is what was left after the warp had been wound. The weft is a cotton slub. The green and pink is silk boucle. The pale blue, dark blue-green and the variegated peach-blue-pink are rayon. Plus a little bit of polyester eyelash.

(02:07:2020)

Then I went to the computer and played with weaving drafts. This was version number 7. At that point I was planning to use a dark weft.

(11:06:2020)
Finally, near the end of June I got around to winding a warp. Here is the setup for winding with five strands of yarn at once.

(24:06:2020)

The finished warp, all tied up and ready to go to the loom.

(24:06:2020)
I decided to put it on my small Baby Wolf loom. The warp goes from the back beam on the loom (out of the picture here), through a reed in the beater, under the front beam and over a high beam on my big loom. A gallon water jug is attached to keep it under tension.

It started going over a beam up at ceiling level but I forgot to take a picture then. Here winding on is almost finished.

(27:06:2020)

The other end of the loom - all wound on, the lease sticks transferred behind the reed and loops cut so the reed can be removed. All "ready" for threading - except that weavers will see the problem here!

(27:06:2020)
It's so long since I've used this loom that I made a beginner error - the warp should have gone over the back beam on its way to the sectional beam. Fortunately, because I noticed this before threading it was easy to fix. NOW it's ready to thread.

Allan made the handy lease stick holders for this loom several years ago.

(28:06:2020)

Threading is under way.

(28:06:2020)
All tied on and ready to weave. We were supposed to be finished by the end of June.

(30:06:2020)

I wove a sample with four different wefts and decided that I liked the pale one in the centre best. This had been cut off, washed, and pressed to see the changes brought about by "wet finishing."

I also identified a couple of errors - a missed dent in the reed and a threading error that were fixed before tying it back on again.

(02:07:2020)

Weaving the scarf is finally under way.

(09:07:2020)
A view from the side so the other side can be seen.

(10:07:2020)

Finished and ready to be cut off. The last pattern repeat was done with fine weft so it can be turned in for a hem.

(14:07:2020)
It's been hemmed, washed, hung to dry and is on the ironing board for a "hard press." The five strands of eyelash yarn need to be teased out of the cloth to show their fluff. That little job took about 90 minutes.

(17:07:2020)

All finished and ready to be modeled by Neil the Bear - only two weeks late.

(17:07:2020)
Wrapped around the yarns that were used in it.

(17:07:2020)

A close up showing both sides.

There is enough warp left on the loom for another scarf - probably with a different weft and treadling pattern. You wouldn't want two of anything the same!

(17:07:2020)
Click the Home button below to return to the main button menu.