Aphid Scarf

Getting all those placemats done opened up Miss Bennet for a new weaving project.  This time it was a lovely (and quick!) alpaca scarf.

Last winter, I made an alpaca scarf for my HLM, and I had someone at work admire it enough to offer to buy it from me.  Well, I could hardly give away his scarf, so I had to refuse the offer.  Since then, she's hinted a couple of times at wanting a similar scarf, something in houndstooth, in unorthodox colours...  So I decided to take her up on it and weave her a little something.

This scarf is made of sport weight fair-trade alpaca from Frog Tree Yarns, in a pale lime green and a cool grey brown, woven at 15 epi.  I chose an 8-shaft houndstooth, since I felt like it makes a bolder statement than a 4-shaft houndstooth would.  The houndstooth draft is a 4/4 twill, which gives long floats and lots of bias movement in the final cloth.  I fulled it a bit in the sink before laying it out to dry, to make the cloth more cohesive, and of course alpaca will naturally felt together with use, to stabilize the fabric even more.

It is light and soft and airy in the hand, but will be warm and cozy on her neck in the cold winter months.  Needless to say, I got myself enough yarn (in dramatically different colours, mind you) to make myself a similar one.