Two Scarves and Some Towels

I know, original title. I've been weaving a bit more and have finished a couple more scarves. There are actually two scarves here, from the same lovely variegated warp, so they do look very similar at first glance.
The one on the right, being modeled by Brownie, has a blue weft, and the one on the left has a pink weft. It is a plainweave, using the "No Hassle Rayon Slub Scarves" pattern from Yarn Barn of Kansas. These scarves were washed by hand, mostly air dried, then tossed in the dryer for a few minutes, and they came out of the dryer so very soft and drapey.

See, they are two separate scarves:


Before I did the scarves, I'd finished some lovely red and white towels:

These towels were all done on the same red and white striped warp. The top towel is in plainweave with a red weft. The second towel is done in a basketweave with white weft, the third towel is white weft and plainweave and the bottom towel is plainweave with stripes of red and white weft.

I promise I'll get to some knitting someday. I do have a knitting project underway that I hope to finish before winter. But today, I'm warping for a bamboo/wool scarf.

Scarf

I may have spoken too soon about not liking the scarf. It came off the loom yesterday and it's much better than I had hoped. It's not perfect by any means, the selvedges are wonky (quite a bit in some places) and it's a bit wavy in places, but overall it is actually quite lovely and I'm happier with it than I'd anticipated (making me really glad I didn't cut it off the loom before I'd finished).

The colors are quite beautiful and the pictures do not do the colors justice at all. I played with lots of pictures and I tried color editing them, but they still aren't great. Pinks and purples are apparently really hard to get right with a digital camera (a real shame since probably 90% of what I do are in those colors). Maybe someday I'll discover how to use the editing tools more effectively. The colors are pink, magenta (dahlia), and eggplant in alpaca silk from Webs. I made my Icarus from the pink and my Hexagon Spider Shawl from the eggplant.

Anyway, here's the best I could seem to get (though the colors in the picture are pretty, the picture just doesn't capture the depth and richness of the colors):

The closeup:


It's a simple 2/2 twill that reverses in the center of the scarf as well as after every three block rows, creating a diamond pattern. The warp colors blocks of pink, magenta and eggplant, and I did the blocks in rows of the same colors. I love the way the colors work so well together and can see myself playing more in the future with colors in weaving. I have tons of scraps of yarn from lace and socks; I can see making some things out of that. I enjoyed working on this scarf and it went much quicker than I thought once I actually sat at the loom for a while. I'm working on twisting fringe and I'll wash it after that. My next weaving project - simple plainweave towels. I've already wound the warp and might do a small sample to make sure my settings are good.

Too Ambitious

I've been working on the loom all week to finish a scarf that's been on there for quite a while. I've realized I'm not going to be happy with it. I should have waited a while.

I'm not saying one shouldn't be ambitious. I've been pretty ambitious in my knitting, but only after laying the proper foundations. I didn't exactly start out with complicated colorwork or lace. And when I did begin laceknitting, I didn't go straight for Frost Flowers and Leaves or Magickal Earth(even though Gathering of Lace was the first lace book I bought). I patiently knit other shawls that appealed to me. And when I was confident enough, I tackled both Frost Flowers and Leaves and Magickal Earth.

As for my weaving, I knew I wasn't ready for a pretty scarf. I knew I had tension issues with the warp and serious uneven selvedge issues. But I was impatient and hadn't addressed my problems; I ignored that little voice and went ahead and did it anyway. So now I have a scarf on the loom with lopsided edges and I'm a bit unhappy with it.

So lesson learned. I'm going to finish it (pictures then because I can't seem to get any decent color ones on the loom) and see if it's any better off the loom (I'm not expecting it to be). And I'll be weaving a set of simple towels next. When I'm ready I'll do something else.

Finished sock picts later in the week.

Wardrobe Re-Fashion

Recently, I came across a neat blog called Wardrobe Re-Fashion. The rules are not to buy any new clothing for a certain amount of time. You choose whether you want to sign up for 2, 4, 6 months or life. Thrift stores are fine and undies, special needs clothing (for employment, sports or school), and shoes are exempt. Handmade items from somewhere like Etsy are also exempted. You get one "Get out of Jail Free" card per each 2 month period (just in case you see something you just have to have). The overall idea of the blog is to recycle, refashion and renovate items that have been pre-owned, whether from your closet or the thrift store. Or to craft items yourself.

Now having recently made a similar personal pledge to myself to make most of my own clothing, I signed up for six months. I got sick of things not fitting properly. T-shirts for instance. If ever I found ones in my size that I liked, they were mostly too short for me. (I'm a mom, not some twenty-ish stick model who likes to show off her belly button.) Since I hate to shop for clothing, 6 months just doesn't seem like a lot for me.

I still plan to show the t-shirts I've made in a later post. (I never remember to get pictures when I have them on for some reason.)

The Pledge

I, Alison, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed, Alison