Handspun Scarves & Fab Four projects

After the "Fab Four" workshop with Robyn Spady I couldn't wait to try some of the 4-shaft weaves with my yarns. The first was this integrated plain weave with two acrylic yarns. They are very orange, but they were very cool to weave and the fabric is a fascinating blend of colors and textures. How would I use this? Well, probably in very small bits--how about a 2-3" diamond on the cover of a book?







This scarf is still damp in this photo and you just can't see it's fuzziness! The yellow base yarn is an acrylic/mohair blend. The orange and black accent yarn is a wool that was knit into a "blank", dyed, and unraveled. The weave structure of the accent stripe is "cannele" and it used only a tiny bit of yarn!










These are two handspun scarves. The warp is a single sized with gelatin. The pink weft is a two-ply yarn that has been waiting very patiently for a project. The purple scarf has a mystery weft. It's a mystery because I didn't write it down. The warp alternates between a light purple/pink and a dark purple/pink yarn. I was hoping for a color-and-weave (shadow weave) effect. Unfortunately the yarns were too similar and my warping technique too irregular to keep everything straight. I gave up my plans for color-and-weave and just wove some twills.

FabFour with Robyn Spady

Robyn Spady was in Indiana this weekend giving lectures at two weaving guilds and teaching her "Fab Four" workshop.

She was a good speaker and a great workshop instructor! I loved how organized and considerate she was and how excited she was to share her weaving tips with us!



The Fab Four workshop focuses on four shaft weave structures--twelve of them! We wove corduroy, diversified plain weave, ribs (in multiple directions), overshot patterned double weave...and lots more! By the end of the two day workshop, the samples you see in my photo were cut apart, inserted in our workshop notebooks!

I am excited to try some of these structures with my own yarns! :)

Headbands Ahoy!

I've been playing with some narrow warps. The first set was a mixed warp with three blues and a multicolored yarn (all about 10/2 cotton grist). I wove with three or four different wefts and turned them into headbands.

I tried a 100% wool warp made of some of my handspun. The yarn was thick and sparkly (thanks to some angelina fiber in the batt), but the band was stiff and scratchy. I ended up turning half of it into a belt and being very glad when it was off the loom!

The third warp is 8/2 cotton--this time a solid color--and again I've used different wefts to change the way things look. This little piece has a linen single as the weft and will be a bookmark. I spun this linen a while ago and am thrilled to see it used! (The pin is my way of measuring progress at the loom. I weave a bit, then measure and put the pin in at the end of the measure. Then I'll weave more and measure from the pin. I keep the running total of woven inches on a scrap at the side of the loom.)