I finished my woven scarf and am declaring it a success.
You can read about the set up for this project in this post.
I wove until I was having to fight to get the stick shuttle through the shed — the top and bottom of the warp get too close together to pass through smoothly, particularly with the mess of criss-crossing strands caused by using a variety of different yarns and spacing them randomly along the heddle. When I weave with just one yarn I can be tidier and weave much closer to the end before I have to stop.
Because the strands at towards the ends tend to resist moving up and down, especially the “stickier” alpaca yarn, I had to be vigilant to make sure I wasn’t skipping over (or under) any threads I shouldn’t have. You can see in the picture above that I missed in one place. The weft is going over three warp threads, when it should be under the middle thread.
This was very close to the end of my weaving, so I just cut the warp thread, pulled it back through to the spot I missed, and then wove it in properly with a tapestry needle.
Then I cut the rest of the warp threads loose and pulled them out of the heddle.
Knots keep the whole thing from unraveling — every five stands together keeps things in place and makes a nice fringe.
The finished scarf is a little rough and bumpy, so the next step is to even that out.
A good sloshing soak relaxes the yarns and smooths out the tension.
Some time drying in a slight breeze, a trim to even out the fringe, and I have a new scarf to put into the gift drawer.
Thanks for the detail with this project – it sounds like a great way to use up all the odds and ends and I love that close up shot where you can appreciate all the colours and detail. Someone is going to be very lucky if they receive that as a gift!
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Thank you for the kind comments. I highly recommend rigid heddle weaving to everyone. It is about the easiest weaving there is. I just need to figure out a less cumbersome way of getting the right length warp without moving all the dining room furniture and I will be set to give everyone I meet a scarf. 😊
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