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.