Heat Wave

We're in the middle of a heatwave here in the Denver area, it's been at or above 100 degrees for most of the week. Last night’s rain gave us a respite, but it is heating up again today. No yard work for me! I've been watering the pots and planters once or twice a day and then skedaddling inside. Got caught up on my microeconomics homework, cleaned the house a bit, and even had time for some fibery fun.

Last weekend I managed to wet-finish and press the first 7 warps of the sock yarn project. I have a couple more weaving errors to attend to but feeling very pleased with how everything turned out. This week I hope to sew them up into scarves and various other things.

One of the things I have been enjoying about this project is learning to design around the inherent constraints. All the warps are 3 yards long, but there is not a lot of any one yarn and each warp has a different number of ends. Part of the fun and challenge is coming up with color and texture combinations that work, and designs that are interesting in plain weave. I know I could do other weave structures on the rigid heddle, but I just don't want to. I have other looms for that.

warp #1

Warp #1 came out colorful, fun, and has fabulous drape! It has 2 solid warp threads, a red and a pale green threaded (mostly) in the slots, and a variegated yarn of sherbet colors threaded (mostly) in the holes. The pale green was also used for the weft. Unfortunately, this is the warp with the most mistakes and the least-even selvages. There was quite a difference in stretch between the warp yarns, so there are a bunch of skips I didn't see at the time. This is before I figured out the window blind slat trick (see this post) to avoid skips. I’ll have to measure and see how long a length I can get out of it. Might have to be sewn into smaller projects, we’ll see what happens.

warp #2

Warp #2 is lovely, and sooooo soft. I chose sky colors for this one, several kettle-dyed yarns, a variegated with purples and blues, some white Panda Silk, and a solid blue-grey. For the weft, I paired a pale green wool from Silk City and a sky blue Kid Silk Haze that gives it a slight halo. This one is far better technically, with good edges and just a few skips to repair. Definitely long enough for a nice long scarf, and maybe a little something else too.

warp #3

For warp #3, I used a variegated sock yarn in colors that remind me of early autumn and a solid medium green, set into somewhat random stripes. I raided the stash and found a cone of Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight in a darker green and used that for the weft. The heavier weft gives it some substance, and I think the color scheme will appeal to both men and women.

warp #4

I had more green yarn and another variegated yarn in springier colors, so for warp #4 I decided to try to gradually shift from one color to other over the width of the warp. I got my calculator out for this one, as the number of warp ends available were not “nice” numbers. The Brown Sheep made a great weft for this one also, yielding another (maybe) unisex scarf. Found another skip as I went to photograph it, but was glad to see that I could not see where I fixed the skips I found before wet-finishing. 

warp #5

Used the Brown Sheep as a weft for warp #5 also. The warp is a marled Wildefoote and some solid green Froehlich sock yarn (how I miss this yarn! Probably my favorite sock yarn ever). I decided to play with texture this time, threading narrow stripes of single ends of marled yarn between stripes of doubled solid yarn. There is just enough contrast, I think, to show off both yarns to good effect. I like the subtlety, and while it looks rather heavy it's actually quite light and pliable. 

I'm going to stop here now, save some for next time. Warp #8 is on the loom as of last night. I tried a couple of weft yarn and wove about 8" before bedtime. Hemmed warp #5 today, getting a couple of others ready to hem so I can put them in my carry-around bag. Good to feel like I'm making real progress. It'll be nice to have some new items in the Etsy shop, and I need to start building up an inventory for the guild sale in October/November. It's always sooner than I think.