Loop the loop

The Lone Star Ladies Present: Shop Austin looks like it’s going to be a really fun event! I didn’t find it soon enough to participate, but I will be attending, and I’ll have an ad in the program. Saturday, April 18 in Austin — see you there!

I found this event via Indie Craft Shows via Etsy.

About a third of the way through the scarf. Although you can’t really tell. Okay, there’s no point in taking another photo until this is off the loom.

So I had to give up on Gunn in the short-term, but I hope to do it soon. In the meantime, it’s Texas Bluebonnet! In order to get a good sample of the sett, this scarf is a little wider and a little longer than usual. It’s going to be a pretty substantial size. Now all I need is time to work on it! Time is in amazingly short supply at present.

I’m considering building my own online store instead of using Etsy. I don’t know that Etsy is really the best place to show off my stuff. At the same time, it’s probably better exposure than I will be able to muster on my own. Hmmm…

I haven’t had a chance to continue on the scarf for a week. And now it’s off for a while longer. I haven’t woven anything in well over a year, at least, and the yarn was purchased several years ago. One of the colors has weakened over time. I thought it would hold up just fine, but the yarn started breaking as soon as I put good tension on it. So, I’ve got to replace the yarn and start over. It was just the one color, though, so in the meantime maybe I’ll start a different tartan. It’s too bad, because I was really grooving on this tartan.

I’m weaving a scarf for the first time in a very long time. I weave fake tartan scarves. My loom is a simple rigid heddle, and to do a proper twill weave, I’d have to have a harness loom. The rigid heddle restricts me to a tabby weave, and the finest I can get is 12 threads to the inch. So I have to halve the official setts, at least. Oh, and I’m weaving in cotton. Because I live on the Gulf Coast. Wearing wool is fairly rare here, except for the kilted, of course.

Even so, I like this. Weaving is at least 75% planning and preparation, and only 25% weaving. After picking the tartan from my “recipe book,” I had to decide how far to reduce the sett to make a nice presentation for a scarf. I have an ideal range for the width and length, and I figured out how far to repeat the pattern on each end for the width, and how many times to repeat it for the length. I did not have to worry about estimating the total yarn amount, because I know I have plenty. But I still have to estimate the warp length. Did that by the handy formula my sister gave me long ago, and tallied how many warp yarns of each color I would need. Then I wound the yarn onto the warping board (which my sister made for me – she’s the coolest) in the proper length, and tied it off in small bundles at regular intervals. Then I loaded the loom and got it all ready to go. I almost got it centered, sigh.

The tartan is Gunn. It’s blue, green and black with a teeny bit of red. And this is what my loom looks like after a long evening.