Saturday, April 16, 2005

Tencel Scarf - Weaving

I got the warp beamed on yesterday afternoon and started weaving. I had to fix three problems - the broken gray thread (easy); two crossed threads that I noticed before I started weaving (pretty easy); and two threading errors that I didn't notice until I had woven four picks (pretty easy but I hate undoing things).

The pattern is coming out as expected but it's more subtle than I had hoped. I think I needed the two dark colors (the blue and teal) to be closer together. I think if I had used a darker blue it would have been more striking. I originally had a darker blue but was talked out of it by someone I asked for advice. This will make me think twice before questioning my judgment ;-)

The pattern is a bit hard to see in the photos, but here is the beginning of the scarf. This is after the end has been hemstitched (using three threads per stitch, or about 76 stitches, but who's counting):



And a bit closer view. At the time I'm writing this, I have finished about 20 inches of the scarf. It seems to be going at about 10 inches per hour which is only about 4 picks per minute - I must be going faster than that! I'm not subtracting for the times I let the dog out, get a drink, watch the birds, etc., so it's probably a bit faster. I tend to be a slow weaver anyway - I fuss at the fabric a lot to make sure it's coming out right. I also had to unwind a few picks a couple of times because I got them wrong.



And here's another piece of my homemade equipment - my $15 bobbin winder:



I made it from an old drill that I found in an antique shop for $15. I made a bobbin holder from a 3/8-inch dowel and used a dremel tool to taper it so it would hold the bobbin. I like this one so much that I sold a Harrisville Designs bobbin winder that I got when I bought one of my looms. It works just as well as the $100 bobbin winders.

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