Good morning and happy Saturday! Our plan today is to go to the Altamont Fair and to go early before it gets too crowded and too hot. There will be fiber and spinning demos this morning and at noon in the wool nook and the sheep & goat ring. I bowed out of participating in any demos at the fair this year because I wasn’t entirely sure if or when I would be able to make it. As it turns out, I can. However, one of the reasons we are going early is because we are anticipating it getting really hot today, and that hot afternoon sun wipes me out.
My week of weaving has gone really well. On Tuesday evening I finished weaving the project on my triangle loom. Or rather, I should say I finished the first piece of the project. My plan is to make four triangles and seam them together along the sides to make a square blanket. I’m fairly certain I will not have enough of the dark red yarn to make three more pieces, so there will be two of those that match and two slightly different pieces that match. I think I can pull it off. If I can’t, then I will seam two pieces together along the hypotenuse and make a smaller square blanket. Each piece will be about five feet across when it is fresh off the loom, but after fulling will be significantly smaller, so I’m really hoping I can stick to my original plan and get four pieces.
I’m sure a few of you are thinking, why not just get more of the dark red yarn. Well, that’s easier said than done. This and the white yarn I’m using in this project were a gift from a friend that she purchased on a trip to Ireland. Even though I still have the information for the dyer she purchased it from, my chances of getting the exact same yarn and the exact same color are pretty slim.
Over on my rigid heddle loom, the red scarf is done. I finished the weaving on Friday, took it off the loom, and then set it aside until I have a few more scarves done. I am really pleased with how this scarf came out. It’s quite long, measuring just about 84 inches without fringe. Once I have finished weaving all of the scarves I want to make I will sit down with all of them and do the finishing work (weaving in ends, tying and twisting fringe, wet finish, etc).
The subtle striping in the scarf from the variegation in the warp yarn looks fantastic. The variegated yarn I pulled out for my next scarf has significantly shorter runs of color. As a warp, this could produce some interesting striping along the length of the scarf. The colors may pool or be completely jumbled. Much of that will depend on the length of the scarf, and as I put the warp on the loom I should begin to see what’s going to happen within the first few inches. Once I can see what is happening with the colors in the warp I may adjust how long my warp is and change how they line up against each other. When I’m happy with how it looks (and honestly, complete randomness is often enough to make me happy) I’ll finish it up and start weaving!
That’s it for this morning. I’m off to put a warp on my rigid heddle loom. By the time I finish it should be just about time to leave for the fair. Have a great weekend everyone!
Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves. 