Twisp of Fate

I finished the second set of 4 merino/tencel scarves using the ombré color transition theme.

Here’s the blue one photographed with the table runner – I am submitting both of these for the show at Confluence Gallery in a couple of weeks:

I have also started a new experiment on my loom at the weaving guild room.  Last February at spinning camp I dyed 4 skeins of fine wool in a color gradient.

And at the weaving workshop in Seattle at the end of February, someone gave me a draft for a woven lace pattern that I thought might work for a shawl with these yarns.  But I didn’t want to experiment with my precious hand-dyed yarn, so I “conditioned” (soaked/washed) some of the undyed skeins and put a scarf warp on that is 2 motifs wide.  Here is the washed sample.  It shrank and bloomed a lot with washing!

It is woven with Jaggerspun Zephyr (50/50 wool silk in a finer weight than the wool warp).  I was experimenting with color and beat (picks per inch).  The gray one at the top was the most successful on both counts.  I like the gold one too, but it was beaten (just pressed with the beater, actually) too firmly.  I am just finishing the second of 2 scarves and will post pictures once they are finished (fringed and washed).

I am pretty sure I will proceed with this pattern for the hand-dyed shawls, using black Zephyr for the weft.  I’ll decide after the sample scarves are finished.  It’s a 66-row treadling repeat and I thought it was going to be a bear, but actually it’s not bad at all once broken down into 4-row sequences.

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