I liked the results of Weaving 006 – A single green stripe, so I decided to attempt to repeat that effort, with only a couple changes. A light blue stripe, and a little wider, so a little brighter. And, I used the speckled blue yarn from Weaving 005 – A gap, and a restart, but instead of crossing it with another color, I used it for both warp and weft. The speckles added just a little more interest.
By this point my little apartment was starting to look like a factory. I wasn’t necessarily cleaning up between efforts, so my floor was rather littered.
And there were partial skeins of yarn of various colors and textures in bags all over the place.
It was actually a good feeling. Especially when it was snowy outside I felt like an elf.
Here’s the blue stripe scarf being warped. In this picture you can see where the yarn is tied to the warp beam. Also you can see a couple scarves already made, awaiting trimming, draped over the chair.
That red orb is just a Martian spaceship, visiting for a little while. Ignore it. Although it was nice to see them, that visit isn’t a part of the weaving story.
Here’s a view while just getting started with the weaving. Can you see a little red in this picture? That’s throwaway weft, and we use a different color for it so that we can easily find where it begins and ends, when we remove it at the end of the process. Why is it there? When starting the weft, the warp is uneven and we need to do a few rows of weft to stabilize the piece. I am sure there are real weaving terms for this – I am using my own barely adequate words. Once you get going, and are making straight lines, you substitute the real weft yarn.
Now here’s a little test of your detective ability… What sport was I watching while doing the warping? Hint: It has nothing to do with the Martians, they’re not into sports, really.
When planning a piece, you have to account for this waste in the length that you choose for your warp. You also have to account for shrinkage when washing. Luckily, for scarves, being “in the ballpark” for length is good enough.
This one’s a little easier. What sport was I watching while weaving?
Actually, I found that I couldn’t watch sports while weaving. My edges started to suffer. I could listen to radio or podcasts or music, but I couldn’t really watch sports.
Making progress.
… and done. Taking the almost finished piece off of the loom.
Here’s another view of that starter throwaway weft that will need to be removed as a part of finishing the piece. I have not yet found an easy way to do it – it is just grunt work, and you need to be careful not to start unraveling the weft that you want to remain in place.
Here’s the finished piece, untrimmed.
