novamade

new adventures in scarf production

I like scarves.  I think they are very useful, and sometimes they are even pretty.  And while I like the idea of making my own scarves, my laziness usually got the better of me in the endeavor of actually making them, particularly because I thought I was limited to knitting scarves.  I don't really enjoy knitting scarves, I have said it before.  But weaving a scarf?  Well, this is an entirely different matter.

   

I won't wax poetic about the process of weaving, other knitters have done so much better than I could hope to.  I will simply say that weaving a scarf takes much less time (at least in plain weave/tabby) than knitting a scarf would (unless that scarf was knitted in bulky yarn on size 17 needles, of course...well, no, probably not even then).

This scarf was simple to weave, I alternated colors in the warp (the vertical part of the weave structure) and then alternated the weft (the horizontal part).  I will put more details in the gallery of goods.

I could have just woven a test piece, but I don't like to waste  energy (some would call this efficiency--I will call it what it is, it's laziness).  Also, I figured I would either get it or I wouldn't, I think I got it.  And now Little Sir has a scarf (it's not without its imperfections; but, he is 2, he doesn't really care about the flaws, or rather, the design features).  So yes, now I am a weaver.  Much to Little Sir's chagrin.

Clearly, he is very excited about my new weaving skills. 

If you haven't figured it out yet, I tend to be the sort of person who goes "all in" on something.  I don't like to do things half way (because really, if I am going to exert the energy, I might as well make it count for something).  But with the weaving, I did test the waters with a used loom from ebay first...before I bought a Kromski Harp (Special K and I will be putting it together this weekend, one of us is very excited about it). I wanted a little more width for weaving (I am thinking wrap as opposed to blankets).  If you are interested in weaving and would like to "test the waters" on my Spear's Size 4 Rigid Heddle loom (16" width), e-mail me, we can discuss a trade of some sort.  I would love to "share the joy" as they say.

I think it's very likely that I will be weaving many more scarves.  I find weaving soothing; and, I really like scarves and I am so excited that I have found another way to make them...faster and more happily.

i am like a magpie

And to me, the equipment of fiber arts are like so many shiny baubles.

I could look at Brooke's amazing work for only so long.  I will be honest and say that I never really thought about weaving until Brooke started posting her weaving (which is sublime, really).  So I ordered a "vintage" rigid heddle loom off of ebay, pulled out some stash yarn that I figured would never get used otherwise and started weaving.  Keep in mind, I had no idea what I was doing.

I think the chain of events was only a little hasty, a tad--a smidgen, really.  One decision that was really hasty was trying to rush summer, or at least the taste of summer.  If you live in the northeast and you are buying nectarines in early April, you are not getting ripened-to-perfection local produce, just FYI.  It is likely not going to be tasty, thus making anything made with said produce not-so-delicious either.

While the cream cheese pastry was good, the filling of the pie was horrible.  I am going to take the high road and say it was me and not the recipe.  I shouldn't have used fruit I didn't have a good feeling about.  I also shouldn't have rushed the process or the individual steps (of which there were many).  Next week, I am going to do something with chocolate...or maybe I will do a savory pie, you know, just to shake things up a little.

Okay, there is still time to do some knitting.  So yeah, I am going to go and do that since I am, you know, a knit blogger and everything.