TwoFerOne
String
Never underestimate the importance of string.
Ah, the humble string! A bit of twine. Not quite large enough to be considered rope, yet thicker than thread. But let it break and the importance of string becomes painfully apparent. Picking along on a new project, the loom just stopped. Not all of it, mind, just Shaft Number 3. Now, what had I ever done to this particular harness to cause it to quit? My little Kessenich loom has always been faithfully steady. But now I had pause to pop the hood (or bonnet for my Irish friends), which of course means getting underneath it and looking up.
Broken string.
Simple enough to fix in theory. A bit trickier in reality. (Do I really have clumsy sausage fingers?!?) Eventually a few loops and knots put us back in the business of weaving, which was…(proceed to part 2)
Experiment in Full
Not knowing when to quit + bit of foolishness = happy accident
Curiosity got the best of me. I’d been wondering how a houndstooth scarf would look in Craftspun’s exclusive thick-thin Homespun yarn full of yummy Blue Faced Leister softness! Time for a little experiment. Black and white and red all over. Classic patterning with a modern twist. Well, the long and short of it—along with the thick and thin of it—was…meh.
Daughter-Kate loved it. I was more ambivalent. It just didn’t grab me. (hmmm…) Well, nothing for it but to chuck it in the washing machine to see what happens. This yarn is absolutely perfect for fulling. I love how the pre-washed-starkness softened into felted woolly warmth! It’s dense allowing it to stand up nicely at the neck. An antique button from Great-Aunt-Sadie’s stash and there it is…the red ribbon scarf.
Okay, now before you go ‘Ee-ew, what was she thinking calling that washed out catastrophe lovely!?!’ I have tried and tried to capture the essence of this very cool project in pixels. Nope, can’t seem to do it. So this is where you take my word for it and then I bring in Husband-Will to take ‘real’ photos for Etsy.
I think it is gorgeous, i always think of woven scarves as really scratchy, not sure why? But yours always look so soft and cuddly to wear.
When the string broke where you mid weave? What effect did that have? I have no experience of weaving but something like this brings back memories of machine knitting where if one stitch was wrong I ended up with a mess across the whole width of the jumper and of course I didn’t notice until I had done a chunk of mess!!
12 Nov 2008 at 8:13 am
I think it is gorgeous, i always think of woven scarves as really scratchy, not sure why? But yours always look so soft and cuddly to wear.
When the string broke where you mid weave? What effect did that have? I have no experience of weaving but something like this brings back memories of machine knitting where if one stitch was wrong I ended up with a mess across the whole width of the jumper and of course I didn’t notice until I had done a chunk of mess!!
12 Nov 2008 at 8:13 am
A Rutgers U. fan will snap it up.
(This brings up a back and forth thing my husband and I have. He insists anything knitted or crafted in any school’s colors will sell. However, that leaves you with working with a pretty boring color wheel, something that, frankly, sucks the soul out of me. He’s probably right, though. People will slap just about anything on their person if it’s in their school colors.)
12 Nov 2008 at 9:24 am
I have to agree with everyone else! It’s gorgeous!
Do you follow Dave’s blog? He is an avid spinner who has now taken up weaving. His posts are eyecandy. Here is his addy if you are interested:
http://theweavingstudio.com/
12 Nov 2008 at 5:13 pm
you do know the saying that ireland lives on fertilizer bags and string?:)) I still remember the days when I came here first and saw one neighbour wearing extremely old and holey wellies… when I asked why he was still wearing them, he told me “to make the most out of it”. meaning: when he goes into the field, he puts a piece of fertilizer bag around each foot, ties it together with a piece of string on top and off he goes:)) sadly he passed away a few years ago – but I still see both the bags and the string put to good use all around – wonky gates fixed with string etc… that is living frugal (some call it mean:)) in its essence?:))
13 Nov 2008 at 9:49 am