WEAVE – Celery Scarf

CELERY SCARF

This is the secret project i was working in May for my swap partner. For the record i was into Green Swap on Australian Swappers Group on Rav. Now that it reached my spoilee i want to brag about it .
It is my almost “Sheep to Cloth” project except that i didn’t shear the sheep and didn’t card/comb the fibre ; I spun the yarn, dyed it and finally wove it into a scarf. Having said that this is also my first weaving project.
By the way i named it Celery coz of its varying shades of light green.

Size: 5″ X ~38″(without fringe)

Notes:

The fibre is optim also known as silky merino that i got from celia. Spinning was a nightmare for DH as the fibres that got off while drafting got stuck everywhere including his office wear Since the fibres are so fine its a bit difficult to keep them in one place.

I spun the yarn in two batches; the first one was around 12-14 wpi and the second batch was a bit thicker 8-10 wpi. Both the skiens combined are around 260-280 mts. The snap above was taken when the skiens are drying after a quick wash.

I dyed them using vinegar, food color and steam combination. The resultant color is lighter than you expect. I mean if it has been wool/merino yarn the resultant color with the same dye would be more dark.

I was initially thinking of knitting a scarf but since the skien weights are so different, i know i will be way out of gauge when taking yarn from the other skien while knitting…. So weaving it is .

Its fun researching for various weaving methods; learning a completely new terminology; visiting some nice blogs and all..
I finally settled on “Backstrap weaving” as it involves some very basic tools and i can improvise a lot with the things i can find around the house to make a loom. Finally after understanding the weaving mathematics and playing with numbers i started weaving… and its done in 5 days; ofcourse the washing and making the ends took a day more.

The thinner yarn (top photo) is used as wrap (lengthwise ) and the thicker (the above one) for weft (the widthwise).

Time taken:
So if you don’t consider my research time and the time i spent on constructing the loom; it took…
4 days for spinning the yarn
1 day for dyeing and drying
5 days for weaving
1 day for fining it off.
Not bad for first weave project…(i think… )

I didn’t calculate for the take-up sufficiently and my scarf ended 5″ less than i expected. Its ok, its sufficiently long to use as a scarf; it will be as a neck-warmer if you double wrap it; the fabric has got a very nice hand (almost like silk); and it is so light that you don’t even feel it

Learnt: Learnt a lot and with the habit i have.. i also have extensive notes; if i want to do weaving again later

All i can say at the end of it is.. “I am so proud of the scarf…” As my first weaving project i would have loved to keep it and even DH was liked the scarf… (though for the life of me i couldn’t persuade him to wear a knitted scarf…) But it is made for my spoilee and there is so much fun in giving something and to know that they liked it a lot…