The year is unfolding in tough & unexpected ways. As we work hard to adjust, meet these challenges, I have been pressed out of regular posting as just one result. By Eastertime, I wanted to pivot and weave something beautiful.
Out came Sarah Jordan’s stunning handspun merino/tencel that I won from her summer 2015 Shawl for All knit-along.
Prized! Handspun yarn by Sarah Jordan, PAKnitWit
Four years ago! The KAL was hosted in Sarah’s Ravelry group, Knit/Wit Designs Fans and this was not just a happy prize but a real honour to have Sarah’s yarn.
Sarah’s yarn on its way to the loom
Close examining with a yarn wrap & Ashenhurst calculation led me to a sett of 16 ends per inch. Sarah’s yarn is 3,154 yards per pound. The plan was simple – to warp along plain weave lines for a finer (4,480 YPP) wool weft and weave a 3-shaft point twill structure.
An Easter improvement plan – threading Sarah’s yarn
There was enough to wind a 3-yard long warp, go 14.5″ wide in the reed, and proceed to sample wefts but carefully!
Can you see me smiling – scarf start!
The weft experiments in the header led me to the 2/16 light grey lambswool from WEBS. The draft itself is from “Linen Heirlooms” by Constance Gallagher, p. 54 taken from a 19th century linen cloth.
Erica de Ruiter’s voice is what carried me through to using this draft, however:
Three-shaft twills have a better drape than plain weave but their structure is slightly tighter, and they have less take-up than four-shaft twills, thus producing a lighter weight fabric (see “Weaving on 3 Shafts“, page 5).
That was convincing enough for napkins let alone this handspun project, and I was well & sold on the idea.
Sheen, drape, pattern YES!
This below is the face of the cloth as I wove it. After wet finishing the wool weft has receded to the reverse leaving the beautiful warp colourway dominant on one side.
Pattern shows as texture on right side with warp stripes
The fringe buckled when I finished the scarf before twisting. Ty strongly suggested that I should not trim the ends. They are scraggly but soft!
Weaving selfie smile
One small detail is that I threaded the full 12-end repeats, and this gave double shaft 1 ends that I wove in the same way (tromp as writ). It modifies the twill to a little basket, and that probably has helped the drape. It gave the weaving a good rhythm for this small motif.
Cutting Sarah’s yarn was harder than cutting mine but I am glad that I braved the process!
Inn on the Twenty, Jordan, Ontario
Weekend before last, N & Ty took me to visit the Fibre Garden in Jordan, Ontario. After lunch at the local cafe, I fell in love with the Inn on the Twenty’s window boxes.
Spinning is getting a lot of love right now – the tv-room is crowded with my wheels & spindle projects are also moving forward. The Falkland wool top that I got from the Fibre Garden is already improved with Logwood. The kitchen is a crowded mess but purple!
Logwood dyed combed Falkland wool top
The darker purple fibre will hopefully play well with my recently (May 3rd) finished sequence of Blink from the 2019 Female Heroes Fiber Club + Paint It Black by Sheepy Time Knits.
Blink met Paint It Black for a sweater spin (3-ply)
Mandie’s club continues to delight. That I also got to cook-up Logwood dye liquor is a wonderful bonus!
Early spring Forsythia
Spinning, weaving, even prep work is happening thanks to walks that I have started to take after dropping Ty off at school. There’s been fatigue, crowded thoughts, and the walks help a treat.
Four-strand cable creation with Babydoll Southdown wool
Should my mojo for sharing ‘impossible yarn’ production that takes place around here, I would like to explain about this ongoing 4-strand cable idea from the Olde English Babydoll Southdown fleece.
For now we have these rolags that were a delight to spin against prevailing ideas that I hear being (wrongly, strongly & ever so cutely) offered to new spinners as our placeholder.
