My first project of 2020 was a pair of scarves for a couple getting married in New Zealand.  There was a little bit of pressure as I had to finish them and get them in the mail for the wedding next month.  This depended entirely on finishing the 30, 2019 Christmas towels first as I was using the same loom and threading/tie-up.

Happily the towels were finished in plenty of time to post back to NZ for those recipients and to deliver to those in the US.  However the smooth transition from one warp to the next was not quite as predicted.  The plan was to just tie the new warp on to the existing towel warp as it was going to be a perfect pattern for the scarves and a quick check on the Internet assured me that the 8/2 tencel (scarf) was the same as 8/2 cotton (towels).  The knotting and pull through worked fine and I was set up fairly quickly only to discover that the two yarns were not really identical.  This was obvious as the twill line was way less than 45 degrees, indicating the sett was too open (at 24 epi).  This was quickly confirmed by doing a wrap test showing cotton = 34, tencel = 39.  So mental note: don’t believe what I read on the Internet (no kidding) and always do a wrap test as part of the calculations (this was actually the very first in my 10+ years of weaving where I didn’t).

The solution was to re-slay the reed  to 28 epi and here by thinking I could take a short cut and just ‘move the threads over’ rather than pull all threads out and re-slay at the correct epi.  Second mental note:  moving the threads over to the new sett invites crossed threads. I added another day to the process just sorting that out – it should have only taken a couple of hours to re-slay!!

Anyway the weaving at the new sett eventually began.  As mentioned 8/2 tencel with a variegated warp and plain weft.  The color choices are an attempt to look like the NZ paua shell (US = abalone), and did come pretty close to perfect.

To the left under artificial light and to the right with flash – the better color depiction is to the right.  It is an 8 shaft twill with the two 45 degree directions meeting in the middle.

After completion of the two scarves I used a standard hand stitched finish and then used a fringe twister to wrap the warp ends (deliberately left long for this purpose).  That job was actual Anne’s, she is way more efficient at it than I am!  The scarves were then hand washed, drip dried, and gently ironed.

Wrapping and a card were procured and then off to the Post Office they went.  They should be due in NZ anytime now – a few weeks before the wedding.

Next project is a tartan throw as a house-warming gift for our friend Terri in Southern Virginia.