Dramatic red and black mobius scarf

A acarf to keep away the winter chills.

I'm finding that as soon as I weave one scarf I have ideas for the next  and the next with the result that my couch is covered in trays of yarns grouped by colour. I keep spinning more to add to the trays.
This one is was on the loom ready to weave when I thought of adding one strand of white boucle yarn to the mix to give the scarf an accent.


The thickest handspun warp is a pinkish red one with coils of black all spun from soft merino. Almost all the yarns are hand dyed including the finer 2 ply yarns which subtely change in colour from red to grey to black.
 

In places I have the black coils floating above the scarf. There's one at the bottom of the picture.

Autumn colours Mobius Scarf

I'm in two minds whether this is a scarf or a cowl. I've used different shades of mohair for the weft interspersed with tailspun Suri locks that I spun and dyed. It is wonderfully soft. The scarf is very versatile as it can be worn with the interwoven ends in front, on the shoulder of at the back. The cowl can also be deepened so that the fringed ends are mostly hidden.

 Here are the tailspun locks I used in the weft together with some 2 ply Suri that I used in the warp.

WOW mobius woven scarf

Having seen a mobius woven scarf  woven in Saori style by Jill Nikolene, I decided I wanted to make one. The scarf has no end as the threads from the front tie up are released to be used as weft at the other scarf end.
I put a 2.5m warp used an Ashford Knitters loom. The warp was a mix of handspun, hand dyed yarns and commercial yarns most of which I had overdyed. If you want to make one yourself follow Jill's instructions.
The length of the actual weaving was 1.9 m. Even though I thought I was following her method, when I cut the scarf from the back of the loom I found I had given it two twists. This doesn't matter as the scarf is long enough to accomodate the two.

Tailspun yarn,  fleece locks and spun beehives give a dynamic texture.

Here is the warp before weaving.

The scarf has been undone from the front beam, twisted, folded, wound back around the front beam. In the image on the right I have woven most of the front warp threads through the remaining warp attached to the back beam.


The colours are fiery like a brilliant sunset.




The result is a matrix of threads that can be worn in front, on the side or wherever.

Got there - 2nd woven scarf

I'm happy with this scarf. It is great to wear as it's long enough to arrange in different ways. The alpaca makes if super soft  and the edges are satisfyingly even (enough for me).

Close up of fleece locks.

The thick and thin yarn forms interesting waves in the centre of the image below.

All the yarns except one were handspun and dyed, not necessarily in that order by yours truely.

Back to weaving

J had thought my weaving days were several decades in the past but all that changed when I saw a friend weaving on an Ashford's knitters loom. Like spinning, weaving has become more creative in the last 5 years or so. I have not quite reached the no rules approach - I still like even selvedges - but my weaving has become more playful. Nearly all the yarns I used were my own handspun. Here is a wine coloured single pulled up to make little loops.

 These are some of the handspun yarns I used in the weft - merino, merino boucle, merino and alpaca thick and thin which I had lightly fulled, thick singles also fulled, grey plyed yarn and many more. The mauve mohair is a commercial yarn. I'd also dyed most of the yarns.

 This part includes spaces, inlaid art yarn, more fine singles and thick and thin.

The finished scarf. I'm not totally happy with it 'cause the mohair section is wider than the rest.

Knitted scarf from samples

Sitting at my wheel surrounded by my favourite spinning books I taught myself to spin these yarns. It was a case of read one, have a go, reread, have another go and read the other and so on. The books were Spin Art by Jacey Boggs and The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs by Sarah Anderson.

I knitted the samples into a short scarf which has become much longer with wearing and tugging.

Bullions

Stacks

Beehives

Bullion loops

  

Lacy curtain from waste yarn

If you've ever wondered what to do with scraps of handspun yarn here's one solution. This technique was taught by Tracey White. I decided to use it to make a lacy curtain. Below you can see masses of handspun experimental yarn that have been dangled onto a sheet of plastic. It helps if some of the yarn is spun as a single with very little twist.

Here is a closeup.

These two photos are after felting.

The result is quite lovely and a great use for waste yarn.

Dream jacket Finished

For years I've wanted to make a handspun version of this pattern. My sister knitted one from commercial yarn and it was a showstopper. People kept stopping her to admire it.

The blue and wine yarns were spun from Corriedale from the Anna Gratton of The Little Wool Company. I

carded some purple and pink silk into the blue wool.

The thick and thin of the cuffs was some synthetic yarn I'd had for 30 years. From it I chose the other colours.

The brilliant lime green from the Anna Gratton was the first sliver I chose. I spun it worsted.


I dyed some superwash merino orange then added sari silk. The sari silk was spun together so I unspun it then cut it into 2" (5 cm) lengths that I shredded and carded into the orange.

The final yarn was superwash merino that I painted then spun and chain (Navajo) plyed.

I used several needle sizes - the bands and collar were knitted on the largest needles. The green of the body was knitted on the smallest needles because I wanted it to hug my body and the multiyarn areas were knitted on slightly larger needles because I wanted more stretch there.

Mitred squares rug

I've seen many beautiful rugs at the annual exhibitions of Operation Cover-up in Thames, New Zealand. People from throughout the Coromandel Peninsula generously knit rugs, hats and jumpers for children in Romania. I was intrigued by the mitred square, also known as domino, rugs.

After I'd completed my Spinning course (see Creative Fibres Courses) last year, I found I had lots of small balls of experimental yarn in a range of natural colours.  When I sorted through my stash I found many others so I decided to make a mitred square rug entirely of yarn spun from naturally coloured fleeces. Since I began the rug, friends have given me more coloured fleece.

The pattern I used was based on one developed by Chris de Longpré. I found it on her website pattern for rug. 

The rug includes fleeces from Polwarth, Gotland, Corriedale, Romney, and Cormo and Perendale. I love the soft shades and the sculptural ridges of the squares.