Weaving Handspun on my Cricket

I spent a good part of the summer weaving up some handspun singles that have been lying around for a couple of years. It was lovely wool, spun from layered rovings purchased from SnokistFarmGirl
in 2009. Since I had only a few ounces of each color combination, I decided to warp my rigid heddle and weave some scarves. 

I used the 8 dent heddle that came with the loom, which gave me a nice, open cloth that fulled very well. 

 

The scarves are light and airy, soft and warm. 

I played with stripes  in the warp,

 

and stripes in the weft.

But mostly I just played with color,

 

and enjoyed the calming rhythm of plain weave.

It was delightful to not worry about structure and pattern for a while,

and just play.

Community Knitting Score!

I went to Community Knitting yesterday morning at Mew Mew's Yarn Shop for the first time. In the bin of donated yarn was a gorgeous skein of hand spun yarn, hand dyed with Kool-Aid. Sue, the shop owner, spun and dyed it herself. I know I don't get to keep it, but I do get to play with it for a while. ;) I love the colors! Just the thing to cheer someone up on the dead of winter.

I cast on 31 stitches on size 10.5 needles for a domino scarf. I'll just keep making squares until I run out of yarn.

Handspun Handwoven Alpaca Scarves

I started spinning this luscious alpaca roving into yarn about a year ago, I think. I had bought it from someone on the Spinners and Weavers Housecleaning Pages a few years ago and finally got around to it. I originally thought I would knit it, but after an experience I had last year at TACtile Textile Arts Center, I decided to weave it into scarves.



I was working my volunteer shift for a the Holiday Gift Show when a lovely older gentleman came in looking for a scarf. For himself. There were any number of gorgeous hand knitted, hand dyed and handwoven scarves, but not one was suitable for a man (besides, perhaps, Eddie Izzard). The man had the means and desire to purchase a handwoven scarf for himself, and he understood all the work and skill that went into making one. But we had nothing to offer him. I felt awful.


So, my 15 ounces of dark chocolate handspun alpaca became 7.5 yards of warp, and the 12 ounces of fawn handspun pictured above became the weft. I used a 4 shaft Swedish Rosepath threading from Davidson's book and chose a different treadling for each of 3 scarves. A little rustic, but not bad and definitely something a man would feel comfortable wearing.

Have you woven something manly lately? Guild show season is coming up, and there are educated, fashion-forward men of all ages , shapes and sizes with ready cash shopping for themselves and their loved ones of both genders. Don't send them home empty-handed.