Weaves with Orange

For the second scarf, I chose another classic weaving pattern - a simple but effective herringbone design - in some unconventional shades of orange.  The darker one is Provence, which I used last year as well, in a crazier scarf, and the lighter one is Tangerine.

I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough contrast for it to look good, but I think it ended up being a nice subtle herringbone.

If you're thinking that this year's scarves are a bit conventional, don't worry.  Things are about to get wild.

Pretty in Pink

Last winter, I made myself a pretty blue hat from SweetGeorgia's superwash worsted yarn, and I've worn it a lot this year.  It has a great drape, and hasn't lost its charm one bit.

With the holiday season coming, I had an idea to knit another one, as a gift for someone who would look great in a cool slouchy hat.  I thought that pink would be a good colour for her, so this time I chose SweetGeorgia's Orchid colourway, in the same round and lovely yarn.

I didn't change a thing about the hat, since I think it's pretty perfect as it is.  Once again, it was a super-quick knit and I had it done in no time.

Perhaps it's going overboard, but then I decided to make a cute pair of matching mittens, in Orchid and Charcoal.  I wanted to do this herringbone mitten pattern (free on Ravelry) for years, and now was my chance.  I chose superwash dk for this one, and somehow got gauge and made the loveliest mittens.  I have tons and tons of this yarn left over; I bet it's even enough to do a second pair.

I think a chevron might have been more aesthetically pleasing (especially since chevrons are so in, this year) but with chevrons, the floats in back would be up to five stitches long.  With this particular herringbone, they are never longer than two stitches long on the front or back of the mitten.  This means they will be super warm stranded mitts, but not so snaggy as something with longer floats.

I love the look of the thumb, the most - especially the way the stitches grow out of that center black column.  If it wasn't so awkward to get a photo of the inner thumb, I would show you how they disappear into a black column on that side of the thumb, too.  The biased knitting makes the thumb nice and snug and comfy.

The only thing that makes these less-than-totally-perfect is that the two yarns took the Orchid colour slightly differently, so the hat looks just a bit more red and the mittens a bit more pink.  Even so, they're beautiful, and I think the giftee will agree on that.

Revisiting the Kindergarten

The first pair of colours I matched up for the second series was some beautiful heathered Cascade 220, possibly my two favourites of all their many shades. There was a lovely sort of wheat yellow with green heathered throughout it, and a sort of greeny grey brown. They look lovely together, and have a bit more contrast to the naked eye than this photo would appear. What I love about this scarf, another version of Hopsack with a 2-colour warp, is that one side of the fabric has vertical stripes while the other side has horizontal stripes. I wish it was clearer in the photo, but nevertheless, it might give some little kid something to ponder.


The next pair of colours is also Cascade 220 -- I was planning to use the magenta with a dark wine red, but there wasn't enough contrast to show the pattern well, so I went in a very different direction and grabbed some more of the bright green. The two colours clash terrifically, which I think kids like, right? Anyway, I did a herringbone twill with some basketweave strips between. I saw a draft sort of like this one on Weavolution, and adapted it and cleaned it up a bit to use it for this scarf. I like how it turned out, and it certainly reminded me of how much I love a simple herringbone twill.


Lastly, I pulled bits of many of the colours I'd already used and wound a random little warp to weave in random stripes of plain weave. I decided to do plain weave instead of twill, because I wanted the various colours in warp and weft to intermingle and blend and create some interesting hues. I think it went pretty well, although I have to admit that I enjoyed this one the least, perhaps because I prefer having a bit of structure, rather than so much freedom. Is that weird? I also had to change the sett, to 8 ends per inch, which seemed maybe a bit loose on the loom, but fluffed up nicely once I soaked and washed and fulled it a bit.

A cute little stack of woolen scarves.

Herringbone Scarf

My latest weaving project is a very simple herringbone scarf, woven in a beautiful heathered wool-silk blend. I have had the idea for this project in my head for a year or so, and after playing around with different twill weaves with the facecloths, I finally decided it was time to bring this scarf to the top of my weaving queue. I know I haven't even shown you the facecloths, yet, but that's just how quick it is to make a scarf, on the loom.

I actually got the yarn last Wednesday, and immediately measured out the warp and dressed the loom. I did a bit of sampling of the herringbone first, to establish how hard I needed to beat the weft in order to get a consistent 45 degree angle in the twill, then began to weave the delicious scarf itself. I wove it in a pretty leisurely manner for the next couple of days, when I wasn't at work. By Saturday night I had finished the weaving, then I twisted the fringe, gave it a bit of a soak with some mild agitation to full it ever-so-slightly, and hung it to dry overnight.


I think the photos capture, a bit, what a gorgeous heather this yarn (Jaggerspun Heather 2/8) is. The colour is darker, called Walnut, and closer to the finished photos, further down, but you can see in these lighter photos that there is some red in there, and copper, and some cooler shades. It was so enjoyable to watch the herringbone pattern grow, with each meditative pass of the shuttle, back and forth, in such a shiny soft and pretty yarn.


As the fabric grew, it took on a soft fuzzy halo, which didn't obscure the herringbone pattern, but felt lovely to the hand. I agitated the scarf against itself as I hand-washed it after it was complete, to build that halo a bit more, and also to full the threads together to make the fabric more stable. The yarn fluffed up a bit with washing, as well (especially, I think, because it came off a tightly-wound cone and not out of a more relaxed skein) and softened a bit more. The twisted fringe also softened and fluffed up. I trimmed the fuzzy ends, below the knots. I wonder if I should have made the fringe thinner -- twice as many at half the size? Perhaps that would make it look more professional, less rustic.


After hanging to dry, the scarf was soft and fine, but definitely warm. The fabric still has some give on the bias, and is so supple. You can see how it flops and folds, in the photo. Such a simple scarf, but classic and beautiful.