A Little Bit Hobbit

Changing up to a different sort of colour scheme for this one, I chose some nature-shades for a little hippie kid.  Upon weaving it, I find it very hobbitty.  The vertical element of this scarf really makes me think of trees.  Needless to say, I like it.

More Cascade 220 Wool Heathers, this time it's Chocolate Heather and Irelande Heather.

Another scrappy scarf is up next.

Using the Leftovers - Oranges & Pinks

Once I've made a few of these scarves, I have enough leftovers from the colours used to make a new scarf with the combination.  This time I added a bit of Galway wool in Natural and a bit of Custom Woolen Mills wool in Red, to round things out and give a bit more contrast.

I kept it in hopsack, which for some reason I thought would end up looking different than just a fat plain weave.  Live and learn.

I do love these crazy plaids, and I'm betting some of the kids do, too.

Shrimp & Eggs

I like to put a few unconventional scarves in the pile, in some crazy colours, because I know that kids aren't afraid to have fun the way some adults can be.  I'm also kind of into hopsack at the moment, so for this scarf, I revisited a hopsack design that I'd used in the past: sort of a windmill design.

While I was weaving, I decided the Robin Egg blue and Shrimp pink didn't have enough contrast to be really effective in this design.  In fact, the fear of that was partly the reason I chose a pattern that had big blocky elements to it.  One of these days I'll remember to think more about contrast when planning colour combinations.  For now, it's just one more warm and wooly scarf done.

The Joker's Henchman

Just when you thought I was done showing off scarves, I pull out one more.  I actually made this one in the midst of all of the Kindergarten Scarves (and the leftovers from it were included in the plaids) but it's actually a separate project.  Because I was so in-the-groove with weaving wooly scarves, I offered to make one for one of my friends, if she was interested.  She bought the wool (Cascade 220 in Chartreuse and Heather) and picked the weaving draft (which she liked when she saw it in the Jj scarf) and I wove it up for her a week or so ago.

Although "little green men" might make you think of aliens, the colours actually evoke the Joker for me.  I guess that makes her one of the Joker's henchmen.  She loves it, which is what really matters.

P is for Purple

Yesterday, as my series of Kindergarten Scarves starts to near the end, I decided to go with something a little fancier and more complicated than most of the ones I've done, so far.  I had set aside two shades of purple for this design, an M&W threading for a 2/2 twill.  I was worried that a lot of the detail would be lost in the fluffy wool, but it actually turned out pretty nice, after washing and drying.  It will be nice for a kid with an eye for detail.

The day before yesterday I did the last of the hopsack scarves - this one was a 3:1 hopsack, which made a design of little magenta squares on one side of the scarf, and little teal squares on the other side.  The squares fluffed up quite a bit and it seems like a thicker scarf than the others, which might just be an illusion.  I like that the two layers are coordinated but different.

Kindergarten Scarf Kk

I finished the fifth of the scarves last night, another hopsack weave in another crazy colour combination of Cascade 220.  When I was winding these two beautiful heathered shades -- Pacific (blue) and Provence (orange) -- on the ball winder, they both made me swoon with how lovely they are, and I ended up craving two new cardigans, one of each.  Put together in this scarf, I don't think they have quite enough contrast to really make it pop.  I am still really happy with this one, though -- I think it looks pretty cool, and I'm sure some kid will love it.

Rorschach Test

Another hopsack scarf finished, and this one has another cool little design on it.  Initially it made me think of a stack of one little inukshuk on top of another (apparently the plural of inukshuk is inuksuit, if you ever wanted to know) but now I sort of see chubby little men.  At some point in the weaving it started to look to me like stacks of Space Invaders.  I think this is one of those patterns that might look like something different to everyone who looks at it.  I'm totally going to psychoanalyze all of you, if you tell me what you see.

Two More for the Kids

The first colour combo I chose with the Cascade 220 is a bold one - a deep teal blue (Azure) with a lighter Lemon Yellow.  I did this particular weaving draft in last year's scarves, as well, but in a colour combination that didn't have enough contrast.  This one has lots of contrast, and in fact vibrates a bit when you look at it.  I'm pretty sure that some kid will love this crazy scarf.  I hope it gives them a bit of a puzzle, too, to figure out how there are vertical stripes on one side of the scarf and horizontal stripes on the other side.

Yesterday, I worked up a second colour combination with the three-colour hopsack.  This time, I used the Peruvian Highland Wool in Peach for the warp and did the weft in Brick and Natural.  As I mentioned, the gingham effect is much more successful this time, presumably because of the use of the Natural yarn.

Kindergarten Scarves Hh

Last winter, I did a series of woven scarves to donate to some kids who needed a little homemade love.  As I mentioned at the time, they are so quick that it's like instant gratification and also a fun way to experiment with colour combinations and various weaving drafts.  I decided to play some more this year, and stocked up on Cascade 220 when it was on sale at Webs in the springtime.  I pulled it out the other day to start planning this series and then found a bag with some leftovers of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, as well.  So now I am well stocked, for a dozen or so scarves.  Let the games begin.

The first draft I chose was a hopsack draft that uses one colour in the warp and two other colours in the weft.  It makes a sort of faux gingham if the right colours are used, which is what I went for, here.  The yarn is the Peruvian Highland Wool from Elann, in Peach, Brick, and Oxblood.  I warped and wove this one on Tuesday.  I like how it looks, in those warm autumn tones, but it's not exactly what I was going for.  Today I am trying another colour combo which is working better - I'll show it off when it's been washed and dried.

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.