I’m on the downhill side of a four scarf weaving project. Three are completed and one is on the loom with about 30% finished. These hadnwoven scarves for Christmas presents for a family of redheads. I used Lisa Souza’s Joseph’s Coat colorway for the weft in all of them and in one I used it for both the warp and the weft. For the other three, I used Harrisville Shetland in the warp – in red and navy blue.
The first scarf nearly turned me off forever of Harrisville Shetland because as the yarn came off the cone it wanted to twist, twist, twist onto itself and in the cross it twisted. I didn’t mind the stickiness of it, but twisting was so bad I nearly pitched the stuff. In desperation I call my local weaving shop and asked them about it. They told me that if the cone had been sitting on the shelf in a warehouse for a while that it would twist like that and that washing it would help.
For the next in this series I used another color of Harrisville Shetland and had no problems – no twisting. Then for the final scarf I used both Harrisville colors in the warp and once again, no twisting from either cone. I think I must have gotten through the section that wanted to twist and twist some more. And I didn’t have to wash it before warping.
One thing that I’ve really loved about this project was that I only had to do the full warp on process for the first scarf (did I mention that yarn also twisted in the heddles?). After the first scarf I just tied-on to the previous warp and pulled the new warp through. When I cut off the warp, I like to use little alligator clips to hold the warp end in front of the reed. The clips hold well and are faster than tying the warp ends into groups (and untying the knots later).
The other challenge I had was with the scarf using Lisa Souza’s yarn in both the warp and weft. The yarn is one that she doesn’t sell anymore, but I’ve used in the past for felting projects. (It felts wonderfully.) I had some other colorways of in my stash and used them earlier in the year for other scarf projects and the sacrves were soft and cushy so I asked if she had any left and if she would dye some for me – which she did. But when I washed my finished scarf, I forgot how wonderfully this yarn felts and how fast it felts. Even though I washed in cold water for just 4 minutes (on the pre-wash cycle), the fringe felted to itself. So I spent quite a bit of time and used a lot of “No More Tangles” picking the fringe apart. I’ve had problems with the fringe felting in the past – but never to this degree. I wish I knew what the trick was to keep this from happening.
The first scarf nearly turned me off forever of Harrisville Shetland because as the yarn came off the cone it wanted to twist, twist, twist onto itself and in the cross it twisted. I didn’t mind the stickiness of it, but twisting was so bad I nearly pitched the stuff. In desperation I call my local weaving shop and asked them about it. They told me that if the cone had been sitting on the shelf in a warehouse for a while that it would twist like that and that washing it would help.
For the next in this series I used another color of Harrisville Shetland and had no problems – no twisting. Then for the final scarf I used both Harrisville colors in the warp and once again, no twisting from either cone. I think I must have gotten through the section that wanted to twist and twist some more. And I didn’t have to wash it before warping.
One thing that I’ve really loved about this project was that I only had to do the full warp on process for the first scarf (did I mention that yarn also twisted in the heddles?). After the first scarf I just tied-on to the previous warp and pulled the new warp through. When I cut off the warp, I like to use little alligator clips to hold the warp end in front of the reed. The clips hold well and are faster than tying the warp ends into groups (and untying the knots later).
The other challenge I had was with the scarf using Lisa Souza’s yarn in both the warp and weft. The yarn is one that she doesn’t sell anymore, but I’ve used in the past for felting projects. (It felts wonderfully.) I had some other colorways of in my stash and used them earlier in the year for other scarf projects and the sacrves were soft and cushy so I asked if she had any left and if she would dye some for me – which she did. But when I washed my finished scarf, I forgot how wonderfully this yarn felts and how fast it felts. Even though I washed in cold water for just 4 minutes (on the pre-wash cycle), the fringe felted to itself. So I spent quite a bit of time and used a lot of “No More Tangles” picking the fringe apart. I’ve had problems with the fringe felting in the past – but never to this degree. I wish I knew what the trick was to keep this from happening.
I'm looking forward to finishing these scarves because I'm really excited to start the project that's on my warping board!
1 comment:
Did you twist your fringes first? Perhaps next time wet the scarf out in the sink and then gently swish it around. You'll eliminate any felting this way. But do twist the fringe prior to wet finishing.
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