Green & Yellow handspun, handwoven scarf

I love spinning wildly dyed merino top!

However, when I had this spun and two-plyed, I decided there was no way I would spend the time needed to knit with this extremely bright yarn. Instead, after I cut the red and black fabric off the loom, I decided to try my first handspun warp and weft in a simple twill scarf project.

To my surprise, only one warp thread had a single ply separate. Instead of repairing it, I wove very carefully, moving the split ply where it should be. After wet-finishing, it's impossible to find where this spot is. Other flaws are a result of overspinning so that one weft "caterpillars," but that isn't all that common in the scarf. Note that I hadn't intended this to be weft-faced, but the usual wpi to epi for twill didn't work because hand spun "blooms" more than commercial yarn. 

Done, it's amazingly soft yet thick enough for a record-breaking cold winter. Overall, I am delighted with the results and will think about what I might spin and weave next. For the most part, I prefer ordering yarn and using it, but this is a good option for top I was going to spin anyway.

Next, I need to finish an overshot design I started on my tabletop Louet Combo.

Red and Black

During this hotter than the Dust Bowl summer, I've been spending time at the Art Center weaving as much as I can. Of course, my brain isn't always working well. I pulled the lease sticks out before threading the heddles, so I had to thread extremely carefully to keep everything in order. Don't touch those lease sticks until the threading is done! (Luckily, I had been careful so there were no problems in the weaving.)

My camera hasn't been cooperating about the shades, but these are made with a bright red and deep black. The first picture is the header with the start of the herringbone pattern, and the second shows more of it.

 When I ran out of black, I used the same red and a different treadling for the solid red, which I really enjoyed weaving. The design is subtle but a lovely broken diamond twill.

 This last picture shows that I was determined to use as much of the warp as possible: it reached within two inches of the heddles! This view gives a more accurate shade of the red.

Here it is, draped over another loom! I will probably make two medieval hoods from the red and black, plus purses from the red (and red/black if there's enough left over).

Oh, the thrill of cutting fabric off the loom!

Err, of course, I had to put the lease sticks through new warp (handspun)--but more later.